Our Sports Reporter
GUWAHATI: Rode on an unbeaten century from Swarupam Purkayastha Assam registered a sensational 6 wickets victory over Karnataka in the Vijay Hazare Cricket in Kolkata today. Assam required 297 runs to win the match and they reached the target losing four wickets and still 10 balls were remaining. With this win Assam finished at top in Elite Group B with four wins.
It was undoubtedly a difficult task for Assam when they started to chase 297 runs in 50 overs. Assam made a cautious start as both the openers Kunal Saikia (15) and Rahul Hazarika (50) added 42 runs in 10.1 overs before Kunal lost his wicket. Swarupam Came into bat on the fall of Kunal and he played a well composed knock. The batter played 102 balls to score 112 not out with the help of 17 boundaries. He got good support from opener Rahul Hazarika and middle order batter Sibsankar Roy. Both the batters scored half century in the match. While Rahul faced 84 balls to score 50 (4X5, 6X1) Sibsankar remained not out on 66 and he took 49 balls to score those runs with the help of seven boundaries and two over boundaries. Both of them also made good partnerships with Swarupam. For the second wicket Swarupam and Rahul added 82 runs which built the foundation of the innings and later Swarupam and Sibsankar added unbeaten 131 runs for the fifthe wicket that snatched the match from Karnataka. Riyan Parag (17), who already scored two centuries in the tournament, today got out cheaply.
Earlier, Nikin Jose (100, 106 balls, 4X9, 6X1) of Karnataka scored a century in the game and helped his side to post a huge 296-4 on the board. The other major contributors of the team were opener Mayank Agarwal (64) and Manish Pandey (58no). Riyan (2-76) was the most successful bowler for Assam.
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