Ranjan's 141 sets up Bihar victory

A breezy 141 by opener N Ranjan featured Bihar's eight wicket victory over Assam in the East Zone Ranji Trophy one day league match at the Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur on Tuesday.

Winning the toss, Assam did well in scoring 239 for six in 50 overs. Opener PK Das (89) and skipper SZ Zuffri (47) added 123 runs for the second wicket off 25 overs. Das faced 127 balls and hit 12 fours. Then T Rehman at No 4 came up with a bright 56 off 64 balls with three fours and a six. R Borah chipped in with a valuable 25 off 28 balls with a six and a boundary. Sunil Kumar took three of the wickets for 49 runs off ten overs.

Bihar made light of what seemed to be a tough target thanks to Ranjan's pyrotechnics. He and KK Rao (38) put on 94 runs off 19.1 overs. This was followed by a second wicket stand of 138 runs between Ranjan and Rajiv Kumar (48). By the time the stand was broken Bihar were almost home and dry and victory was achieved with 4.4 overs to spare. Ranjan got his run off just 147 balls with 13 hits to the ropes.