Vijay Hazare Trophy: Anustup Majumdar’s unbeaten 99 guides Bengal to big win against Baroda

Vijay Hazare Trophy: Anustup Majumdar’s unbeaten 99 guides Bengal to big win against Baroda

Anustup Majumdar (99 n.o., 106b, 12×4, 1×6) and Sumanta Gupta (69 n.o., 80b, 4×4, 1×6) strung together an unbroken 158-run stand for the third wicket to guide Bengal to a seven-wicket win against Baroda in the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day cricket championship Group E match at Gymkhana Ground here on Saturday.

Chasing a victory target of 229, Bengal faltered at the start, with southpaw Abishek Porel (1) mistiming a hook stroke off India all-rounder Hardik Pandya off the fifth ball of the innings, and then lost Sudip Kumar Gharami (17), who nicked one from pacer Lukman Meriwala.

This could have raised hopes for Baroda to pull off something special after a disappointing batting show.

Sudip Chatterjee (32, 41b, 3×4) looked confident before being run out, which saw Majumdar and Sumanta join hands in the 17th over, at 71 for three.

From there on , it was a Majumdar-Sumanto show till the finish as the two batted with a great sense of responsibility, cutting down all risks, picking ones and twos with lovely placements rather than going for ambitious strokes.

This was a strategy which made the Baroda attack ineffective despite Hardik bowling a terrific first spell.

With an emphasis on timing and placement rather than brute force, Majumdar and Sumanta ensured there was no way Baroda could have come back into the game.

Earlier, Baroda owed its modest total to a brilliant knock by opener Shashwat Rawat (95, 111b, 10×4, 2×6), which was interspersed with two beautifully timed sixes in one over when he swung left-arm spinner Kaushik Maity with ease.

Pacer Sayan Ghosh (three for 43) and left-arm spinner Pradipta Pramanik (three for 25) were the pick of the bowlers for Bengal.