Gharami (117*) & Anustup (102*) power Bengal
into quarterfinals of Vijay Hazare Trophy


9th December 2023
Sudip Kumar Gharami led from the front with a superb unbeaten 117 along with Anustup Majumdar (102 not out) as Bengal outclassed Gujarat by 8 wickets to storm into the quarterfinals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Rajkot on Saturday.
Enroute his excellent 132-ball innings, Gharami struck nine boundaries and two sixes. On the other hand, the veteran Anustup, with 10 boundaries and 1 six in his 88-ball innings, hit his second successive ton in the pre-quarterfinal after his match-winning 111 against Punjab in the final Group E match.
Batting first, Gujarat managed to post a challenging 283/9 in 50 overs, thanks to Priyank Panchal (101).
For Bengal, debutant Suman Das (2-48), Pradipta Pramanik (2-51), Ishan Porel (1-46), Mohammad Kaif (1-60) and Karan Lal (1-45) impressed with the ball.
In reply, Bengal chased the target down comfortably, scoring 286/2 in 46 overs.
Earlier, put into bat, Gujarat were reduced to 38/2 inside 9 overs. But Priyank and Saurav Chauhan (53) batted sensibly to add crucial runs to bail the team out of trouble.
Next up, Axar Patel (17) also departed cheaply after being dismissed off Lal. However, Umang Kumar (65) stepped up to provide the much-needed boost to their total at the end.
Chasing the target, Bengal lost opener Shakir Habib Gandhi (0) in the very first over. But Abishek Porel (47) and incoming batsman Gharami together steadied the ship.
Despite losing Abishek in the 17th over with 77 on the board, skipper Gharami and the experienced Anustup never panicked.
From there on, the duo batted superbly till the end to add an unbeaten 209-run partnership for the third wicket to take the Laxmi Ratan Shukla-coached side into the last eight stage.

CAB MEDIA DESK
Arindam Basu