da bet7k： Hosts Assam were on the brink of handing Bihar an innings defeat intheir Ranji Trophy East Zone clash at the Tinsukia District SportsAssociation ground on Saturday
Sankhya Krishnan23-Dec-2000Hosts Assam were on the brink of handing Bihar an innings defeat intheir Ranji Trophy East Zone clash at the Tinsukia District SportsAssociation ground on Saturday. At stumps on the second day, Biharwere in poor shape at 126/8 in their second innings when stumps weredrawn, requiring 30 more runs to make their opponents bat again.Earlier Assam were dismissed for 241 which gave them a healthy firstinnings lead of 156.In the morning, Tripura lost all rounder Ganesh Kumar with just nineruns having accrued to the overnight score of 122/5. Kumar becamewicketkeeper MS Dhoni’s second victim, the bowler being thepersevering Mihir Diwakar. A recovery was launched by SunilSubramaniam and Sukhvinder Singh, who added 78 for the seventh wicket.Former Tamil Nadu left arm spinner Subramaniam, who took his 250thwicket in the Ranji Trophy earlier this season as Assam’sprofessional, was not called on to bowl in either innings. Hecontributed 26 in the role of a specialist batsman but it was thelefthanded Sukhvinder, batting at No.8, who top scored with a useful47. Opening bowler Diwakar was the most successful, scalping threewickets although it came at the considerable expense of 73 runs from16 overs.Assam seamer Gautam Dutta proceeded to destroy the upper echelons ofthe Bihar batting, taking out the first four men with the score havingreached 44. Perhaps the most crucial of those scalps was the lastvictim, skipper Rajiv Kumar, who fell at 44. Just when Sunil Kumar andskipper Tariquer Rehman were attempting a recovery, left arm spinnerSukhbinder nipped the prospects with a three wicket haul in the spaceof four successive overs he bowled to leave Bihar at 81/7. Off thelast ball of the day, Diwakar was caught in R Borah’s first overleaving the battling Rehman, who was still unbeaten on 49, to salvageAssam’s dim prospects on Sunday in the company of the tail.