da wazamba： Assam were staring at certain defeat at the hands of Bihar on thesecond day of the East Zone Cooch Behar Trophy Under-19 tie at theNFRSA Stadium in Maligaon, Assam on Saturday
Natarajan Sriram22-Oct-2000Assam were staring at certain defeat at the hands of Bihar on thesecond day of the East Zone Cooch Behar Trophy Under-19 tie at theNFRSA Stadium in Maligaon, Assam on Saturday. Assam still need 42 runsto make Bihar bat again. The hosts were struggling at 136 for 8 in thesecond innings, following on after being bundled out for a paltry 62in the first. Bihar in their first innings were all out for 240 on thefirst day.Assam in their first innings on Saturday morning made a disastrousstart losing opener C Ruat (0) off the fifth ball of the day when hegave a catch to Prakash off Diwakar. Assam thereafter continued tostruggle against a disciplined Bihar attack. The innings folded up in41.3 overs with only J Rajkhowa (17) and C Barua (16 not out) managingto reaching double figures. Diwakar with 3 for 17 and Ambuj Kumar (3for 13) were the most successful bowlers for Bihar.Following on, Assam openers D Kalita (19) and C Ruat (75) made amendswith a fruitful 62 run partnership in 17.1 overs. Kalita was the firstto be dismissed when he was stumped by Prakash off Ambuj Kumar. Thenew batsman S Bhattacharjee (0) departed in the very next over caughtby Manish Kumar off KI Rao. The Assam skipper HS Das (0) was dismissedsoon after, caught by Pratap off Ambuj Kumar.But Assam kept losing wickets even as Ruat kept scoring at the otherend. Ruat was the sixth batsman to be dismissed when he gave a chanceto Ratan Kumar off KI Rao. Assam lost two further wickets beforestumps were drawn. KI Rao (4 for 29) and Ambuj Kumar (3 for 46) werethe most successful bowlers for Bihar.