Anushtup’s 100 helps Bengal beat Pondicherry by 8 wkts

Ranchi: Riding on an unbeaten 100 by Anushtup Majumdar, Bengal beat Pondicherry by eight wickets in their Vijay Hazare Trophy Elite Group E match in Ranchi on Thursday.
After a heart-breaking loss to Maharashtra, Laxmi Ratan Shukla’s men eased past Pondicherry’s total of 197 scoring 202/2 in 39 overs.
Chasing the target, Bengal suffered an early blow as skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran was dismissed for just 8 in the seventh over with Bengal’s total at 18.
From there on in-form batsman Sudip Gharami (56 off 69) and Anushtup kept their cool and held the innings firmly.
But after the dismissal of Gharami, incoming batsman Manoj Tiwary (32 not out) used his experience along with Anushtup to take the team over the line.
Earlier put into bat, Pondicherry lost wickets at regular intervals thus failing to put up a fighting total. Paras Dogra (63) was the top scorer for the side.
For Bengal, Geet Puri (3-24), Shahbaz Ahmed (3-25), Mukesh Kumar (2-40) and Pradipta Pramanik (2-50) impressed with the ball.
Bengal next face Railways on Saturday.
In Kolkata (Elite Group B Matches):
Assam (307/8 in 50 overs) beat Sikkim (127 all out in 36 overs) by 180 runs.
Vidarbha (113/1 in 27.1 overs) beat Meghalaya (111 all out in 40 overs) by 9 wickets.
Karnataka (161/6 in 29.4 overs) beat Delhi (159 all out on 45.4 overs) by four wickets.
Jharkhand (271/5 in 49 overs) beat Rajasthan (270 all out in 49 overs) by 5 wickets. (UNI)