Monday, October 15, 2018

Vijay Hazare Trophy 18-19: Bihar Review

Bihar made an excellent comeback to the big leagues, topping the Plate group and reaching the Quarter-finals. It was a team of newcomers with 14 players making their List debuts during the campaign. They were also not helped by the loss of Pragyan Ojha midway through the campaign. Ojha led the side till a mid-campaign injury sidelined him and Keshav Kumar took over in his place. Short summary of the team’s performance follows. 

Game 1: Nagaland 253/8 (50) lost to Bihar 254/2 (43.4) by 8 wickets 
Key Performers: Babul Kumar 121*, Keshav Kumar 76* & 2/35, Samar Quadri 3/35 
List A Debut: Vikas Ranjan, Kundan Sharma, Babul Kumar, Anunay Singh, Rohit Raj, MD Rahmatullah, Diwan Khan 

Game 2: Uttarakhand 160/10 (43.2) lost to Bihar 163/5 (37.3) by 5 wickets 
Key Performers: Vikas Ranjan 79, Anunay Singh 3/21, Samar Quadri 3/37 
List A Debut: Ashish Sinha 

Game 3: Bihar vs Puducherry – Match abandoned due to rain. 

Game 4: Bihar 211/9 (50) beat Meghalaya 103/10 (42.5) by 108 runs 
Key Performers: Samar Quadri 5/22, Ashutosh Aman 3/15 
List A Debut: Anshuman Gautam 
Keshav Kumar led the side in Pragyan Ojha’s absence 

Game 5: Arunachal Pradesh 145/10 (45.3) lost to Bihar 150/5 (26) by 5 wickets 
Key Performers: Keshav Kumar 5/23, Ashutosh Aman 3/15, Babul Kumar 57 

Game 6: Bihar 338/6 (50) beat Sikkim 46/10 (31) by 292 runs 
Key Performers: Rahmatullah 156*, Babul Kumar 92, Keshav Kumar, 3/7, Anunay Singh 3/12 
List A debut: Eshaan Ravi 
Record: Biggest victory margin in runs in List A history in India 

Game 7: Manipur 172/8 (50) lost to Bihar 176/2 (29.1) by 8 wickets 
Key Performers: Rehan Khan 3/39, Babul Kumar 100*, Rahmatullah 50* 
For Manipur, Yashpal Singh scored 134 out of the 172 runs! 
List A debut: Kumar Mridul 

Game 8: Mizoram 83/10 (27.2) lost to Bihar 87/1 (15.4) by 9 wickets 
Key Performers: Keshav Kumar 4/21, Ashutosh Aman 3/2, Vikas Ranjan 59* 
List A debut: Manish Rai 

Bihar topped the group and qualified for the Quarter-Finals 

Quarter-Finals: Bihar 69/10 (28.2) lost to Mumbai 70/1 (12.3) 
List A Debut: Vijay Bharti, Sabir Khan 

Overall, a good run for Bihar!They have got a promotion to Group C of the tournament next year, which is a tougher group to qualify through!  

Coming up next: Ranji Trophy also in the Plate League. Given the recent performances and relative strengths of the sides, Bihar should be able to make it through to the quarters from this group. 

Season Stats 
Highest Scorers 
  1. Babul Kumar – 419 @ 83.80 with 2 centuries (earlier represented Jharkhand)
  2. Rahmatullah – 256 @ 85.33 with 1 century
  3. Vikas Ranjan – 247 @35.29 
Most Wickets 
  1. Keshav Kumar – 15 @ 9.40 
  2. Ashutosh Aman – 15 @ 8.40 
  3. Samar Quadri – 12 @ 16.25 (who earlier represented Jharkhand)
Highest Score – Rahmatullah 156 vs Sikkim 
Best Bowling – Samar Quadri 5/22 vs Meghalaya 

Players Used – 18 with 14 List A debutantes

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