East Champaran in Bihar Chief Minister Cup cricket semifinals

Patna, March 7, 2010: East Champaran became the fourth team to enter the semifinals of the Bihar Chief Minister Cup cricket tournament edging past Purnia by six runs in the last quarterfinal match at the Moinul Haq Stadium here on Sunday.

Batting first East Champaran made 137 runs off 31.2 overs. Varun Ketan and Md Asif opened the East Champaran innings but Md Asif (1) was caught off medium pacer Raj Ratan Singh when team’s total was only six runs. Naveen Gupta and Varun put on 45 runs for the second wicket before Varun (15, 2x4) was caught off Gaurav Anand.

Naveen emerged as the top scorer with 36 runs. He stroked in seven boundaries. Vijay Bharati was the pick among bowlers claiming four wickets for 31 runs off eight overs.

In reply, Purnia fumbled out for 131 runs off 32.1 overs. Sheikh Samiool (23, 2x4), Shankar Kumar (12), Raj Ratan Singh (32, 3x4), Nishant (16) and Gaurav Anand (11) were the notable contributors. Rajeev Ranjan and Ravi Kumar claimed three wickets each for 18 and 19 runs respectively.

Brief scores: East Champaran: 137 all out in 31.2 overs (Varun Ketan-15, Naveen Gupta-36, Pintu Kumar-15, Sikandar Sahani-12, Vijay Bharati-4/31, Gaurav Anand-3/33, Raj Ratan Singh-2/21, Anuj Mishra-1/11).

Purnia: 131 all out in 32.1 overs (Sheikh Samiool-23, Udhav Kumar-16, Shankar Kumar-12, Raj Ratan Singh-32, Nishant-16, Gaurav Anand-11, Rajeev Ratan-3/18, Pintu Kumar-3/19, Sunny-1/30, Pintu-1/25, Naveen Gupta-1/5, Prabhakar-1/19).

Photo caption: East Champaran and Purnia teams pose for a group photograph in Patna on March 7, 2010.
Photo: Aftab Alam Siddiqui