Boosted by Sourav Ganguly's presence in the team, and also helped by his allround performance, Bengal defeated Haryana by 18 runs at Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera near Ahmedabad on Monday morning, registering their second successive win in Group B of the Inter-State Twenty20 tournament, having beaten Madhya Pradesh in their opening match on Sunday.
Batting first, Bengal posted an impressive total of 171 for 6 in the stipulated 20 overs.
Ganguly, who opened the innings, was shaping well to play a major innings after having begun on a very cautious note. But a misunderstanding with Manoj Tewary resulted in the "Bengal Tiger" getting run out when his individual score was 26 off 20 balls with the help of 2 fours and a six.
But Sunday's hero Rana Chowdhary again proved how he relishes Twenty20 version of cricket. Hitting the Haryana bowlers all round the wicket, he made a whirlwind 63 off just 36 balls. His cracker of a knock was spiced with 5 towering sixes and an equal number of hits to the fence.
Tewary also chipped in with an important innings of 40 in 39 balls. The Bengal captain hit 3 fours but no sixes.
Haryana, who won against Madhya Pradesh last night, made a good effort to chase the target, with Sachin Rana and Joginder Sharma playing explosive innings of 62 (42balls, 7x4, 2x6) and 35 (24 balls, 4x4, 1x6) respectively.
But they eventually fell short by 18 runs as Haryana was all out for 153 in 19.3 overs. For Bengal, Ranadeb Bose bagged 4 for 40 in 4 overs, Ganguly 2 for 16 in 1.3 overs and Laxmi Ratan Shukla 2 for 23 in 4 overs.
