Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021-22: Bihar Review

Bihar played in the Plate League. With 3 wins and 2 losses from 5 matches, Bihar finished 3rd in the 8 team Plate League, thus missing out on a knock-out berth. Ashutosh Aman led the side. 

Here is the game-by-game summary of the tournament. 

Game 1: Bihar 222/8 (50) lost to Mizoram 223/3 (47.4) by 7 wickets 

Highlights: Sakibul Gani 114 

List A Debut: Abhijeet Saket, Bipin Saurabh, Malay Raj 

Game 2: Meghalaya 273/6 (50) beat Bihar 272/10 (50) by 1 run 

Highlights: Amod Yadav 3/44, Sakibul Gani 94 

List A Debut: Amod Yadav 

Game 3: Bihar 280/8 (50) beat Nagaland 142/10 (31.4) by 138 runs 

Highlights: Bipin Saurabh 79, Mangal Mahrour 94*, Sarfaraz Ashraf 3/18, Ashutosh Aman 2/14, Shashi Shekhar 2/9 

List A Debut: Nikhil Anand 

Game 4: Sikkim 193/9 (50) lost to Bihar 194/3 (36.5) by 7 wickets 

Highlights: Ashutosh Aman 4/37, Bipin Saurabh 92* 

Game 5: Arunachal Pradesh 83/10 (21.3) lost to Bihar 87/4 (19.1) by 6 wickets 

Highlights: Malay Raj 5/38, Sachin Kumar 3/6, Sakibul Gani 2/29 

List A Debut: Aditya Singh, Kumar Rajnish, Washim Ashrar 

Season Stats 

Highest Scorers 

1. Sakibul Gani 231 @ 77.00, 1x100, 1x50 
2. Mangal Mahrour 188 @ 62.67, 1x50 
3. Bipin Saurabh 182 @ 60.67, 2x50 

Highest Wicket-takers 

1. Ashutosh Aman 7 @ 19.14 
2. Malay Raj 6 @ 13.00 
3. Shashi Shekhar 6 @ 15.83 

Best Batting: Sakibul Gani 114 vs Mizoram 

Best Bowling: Malay Raj 5/38 vs Arunachal Pradesh 

Players Used: 22 

List A Debut: 8 

Overall, not a particularly great run for Bihar. No steady team selections, Debuts being handed out all over the place. Pure batters coming in at the tail! Difficult to see how this team gets better in the near future. 

And now we enter a phase of uncertainty for the next fixture. Although there is an IPL auction coming up as well, but with the exception of Sakibul Gani and maybe Bipin Saurabh, the performances just aren't good enough. Let's see how many progress into the final auction list!

Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy 19-20: Bihar Review

The bad run continued for the Ashutosh Aman led side. Bihar lost all 6 games to finish bottom of Group A. Only in the last game against Uttarakhand was a semblance of fight put up. There weren't too many individual performances of note - with Rajesh Singh's all-round display against Goa being the highlight. The team is still finding its feet at the senior level which is clear from the amount of chopping and changing going on with the personnel.

Summary of the tournament. 

Game 1: Bihar 97/7 (20) lost to Andhra 98/0 (11.5) by 10 wickets 

Highlights: Rahmatullah 44*(35) 

T20 Debut: Anshuman Gautam, Rajesh Singh, Shivam Kumar, Vipul Krishna 

Game 2: Goa 202/4 (20) beat Bihar 173/8 (20) by 29 runs 

Highlights: Rajesh Singh 64 (28), Rahmatullah 38 (33) 

Game 3: Services 184/7 (20) beat Bihar 90/9 (20) by 94 runs 

Highlights: Sarfaraz Ashraf 3/35 (4) 

T20 Debut: Eshaan Ravi, Shashi Shekhar 

Game 4: Bihar 124/7 (20) lost to Baroda 125/0 (12.3) by 10 wickets 

Highlights: Kunal Dabas 45 (40), Rajesh Singh 31 (25) 

T20 Debuts: Kunal Dabas, Harsh Singh, Shashi Gupta 

Game 5: Bihar 106/10 (19.3) lose to Karnataka 107/1 (11.2) by 9 wickets 

Highlights: Babul Kumar 41 (34) 

T20 Debut: Abhijeet Saket 

Game 6: Bihar 134/8 (20) lost to Uttarakhand 138/4 (19.1) by 6 wickets 

Highlights: Rahmatullah 64 (45) 

Season Stats 

Highest Scorers 

1. Rahmatullah – 172 @ 34.40 
2. Rajesh Singh – 106 @ 17.67 
3. Babul Kumar – 100 @ 16.67 

Highest Wicket-Takers 

1. Sarfaraz Ashraf – 5 @ 27.40 
2. Shashi Shekhar – 3 @ 13.67 
3. Vipul Krishna – 2 @ 36.00 

Best Batting: Rahmatullah – 64 vs Uttarakhand, Rajesh Singh 64 vs Goa 

Best Bowling – Sarfaraz Ashraf – 3/35 vs Services 

Players Used - 18 

T20 Debuts – 10 

Coming Up Next – Ranji Trophy, where Bihar is in the Plate Group.