Vijay Hazare Trophy: Abhishek Raman ton gets Bengal back on winning track

KOLKATA: Bengal returned to winning ways on Thursday, beating Rajasthan by five wickets in the Elite Group 'C' Vijay Hazare Trophy match at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.
Left-hander Abhishek Raman hit his second century of the tournament, remaining unbeaten on 122 (108 balls, 11x4), to help Bengal reach the target after the hosts posted 265 for 4 on being asked to bat first.
Allrounder Mahipal Lomror's classy 79 helped Rajasthan recover after losing both openers cheaply. Lomror and Arijit Gupta added 105 runs for third wicket before Gupta departed for a well-made 56. Lomror fell soon after, but Rajesh Bishnoi (42*) and Ashok Menaria (39*) ensured that Rajasthan got a fighting total.
Dinda (2-52) and Arnab Nandi (2-32) were Bengal's most effective bowlers.
Skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran and Raman put Bengal on victory path after Shreevats Goswami fell for 14. The right-left combination put on 112 for the second wicket. Easwaran's departure for 66 was followed by the cheap dismissals of Manoj Tiwary (7) and Sudip Chatterjee (1).
But Raman kept his cool as the situation got a bit tight. Shahbaz Ahmed, centurion in the last game, provided Raman good support as Bengal pocketed full points.
"We just wanted to hang in there," Raman said about his stand with Easwaran. "We lost the first wicket in the 12th over. So we thought about staying there till the 40th over at least," he added.
The win pushed Bengal to third place with 12 points from five matches.
Brief scores: Rajasthan 265/4 in 50 overs (Mahipal Lomror 79, A Gupta 56, R K Bishnoi 42*, Arnab Nandi 2/32) lost to Bengal 266/5 in 49 overs (Abhishek Kumar Raman 122*, Abhimanyu Easwaran 66, R M Bishnoi 3/49).