Players Details
Fixture & Results
Assam clinch last ball thriller
10th January 2021
Assam defended a competitive 159 for five under lights at Eden Gardens in their first match of Group B of Syed Mushtaq Ali Tournament defeating favourites Hyderabad by 2 runs in a tightly fought contest that was decided on the last ball of the match.
Assam was put to bat by Hyderabad and rose to the challenge. In the end Hyderabad finished their innings at 157 for 8 to concede defeat.
Big contributions from the middle-order made sure Assam had the runs on the board after being reduced to 57 for four wickets. The top order failed to give Assam the start they wanted after Hyderabad put them to bat after winning the toss. Kartikeya Kak took two early wickets to peg back Assam.
But Riyan Parag in the company of Sahil Jain had other ideas. A 54 run partnership for the fifth wicket in which Sahil scored 31 off just 21 balls got Assam going. The momentum was kept alive by Rajjakuddin Ahmed who joined forces with Parag and played an unbeaten cameo of 31 off just 15 balls that was decked with three boundaries and two sixes. The duo made an unbeaten partnership of 48 runs for the sixth wicket, with Parag remaining not out on 51 off 40 balls.
Rajjak was particularly merciless on Kartiyeka hitting him for 24 runs in the 19th over. But it was Parag who brilliantly paced his innings hitting three boundaries and two sixes to play the role of an attacking anchor to propel Assam's total.
Coming out to bowl Assam never let Hyderabad off the hook chipping away at the wickets. Hyderabad will have only themselves to blame as they got bogged down by the medium-pace attack with a stingy line and length. With the pitch becoming difficult under lights Assm tightened the noose as veteran Pritam das took 3 for 30 and Amlanjyoti das played a perfect foil taking two wickets for 26.
For Hyderabad Himalay Agarwal (28), Buddhi rahul (21) and Ravi teja (24) all got decent starts but could not convert them into big scores.
Hyderabad needed 11 runs in the last over but made a mess of the chase needing four of the last ball. They managed only 1 to lose by two runs.
CAB MEDIA DESK
Rio Dutta
