New Delhi, March 6 (IANS) Medium pacer Ashok Dinda’s five-wicket haul took Bengal into the semi-finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy with a 15-run win over Madhya Pradesh in the quarterfinals at the Palam Ground here Tuesday.
Bengal will now face the winner of the quarterfinal match between Punjab and Hyderabad in the first semi-final slated for Saturday at the same venue.
Bengal electing to bat on a slow and low track, made a shaky start but recovered to put up a score of 230 for eight in 45 overs.
The top-three back in the pavilion for just 60 runs on board but crucial knocks from Manoj Tiwary (48), Wriddhiman Saha (53) and Anustup Majumdar (55) brought some respectability to the innings. The match was reduced to 45 over affair after late start due to fog.
Dinda with his figures of five for 54 wrecked the top-order as Madhya Pradesh were all out for 215 runs in 44.3 overs. Dinda was also adjudged as the man of the match.
Bengal former India captain lost Sourav Ganguly (8) and all-rounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla (5) in quick succession. Opening batsman Shreevats Goswami (20) stuck around for some time but fell to Jalaj Saxena (2/52).
Tiwary and Saha the resurrected the innings with their 75-run stand. They took their own time to settle down and were always at ease.
Tiwary’s 43 came from 63 balls, Saha’s breezy 52-ball knock was studded with six fours and a six. At a time when the partnership was looking dangerous a poor mix-up between the two resulted in Saha’s run out.
Tiwary too fell soon and Debrabata Das was back in the pavilion without troubling the scorers as Bengal found themselves in a spot of bother with the score 154-6.
At the end a gritty 74-run stand between Majumdar and Arnab Nandi (26 not out) gave Bengal bowlers a competitive total to defend.
Madhya Pradesh began their chase on a faulty start and were reduced to 94 for five with Dinda doing most of the damage. Harpreet Singh (36) and Anand Singh’s (53) 48-run partnership helped Madhya Pradesh start a fightback.
Harpreet committed hara-kiri by running himself out. With Anand still playing Madhya Pradesh were still in with a chance but after he fell in the 40th over and the score on 183 for eight the game was pretty much dead buried.