Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy 2022-23: Bihar Review

Bihar were placed in Group D. All matches held in Indore and mostly televised live presenting a great opportunity for the players to present their cases for the next IPL auctions.

Things did not go too well for the Ashutosh Aman lead side. They beat Nagaland and almost trumped Andhra but were outplayed in the other matches to finish 6th in the group.

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

Game 1: Nagaland 145/8 (20) lost to Bihar 148/4 (19.1) by 6 wickets

T20 Debut: Raghuvendra Pratap Singh, Rishav Raj

Highlights: Anuj Raj 4/32, Abhijeet Saket 2/19, Bipin Saurabh 29 (19), Sachin Kumar 34* (18)

Game 2: Himachal Pradesh (179/7) (20) beat Bihar 150/6 (20) by 29 runs

T20 Debut: Anshuman Raj, Apurva Anand

Highlights: Sakibula Gani 48 (29), Bipin Saurabh 40 (32)

Game 3: Baroda 156/5 (20) beat Bihar 120/8 (20) by 36 runs

Highlights: Anuj Raj 2/19, Sachin Kumar 0/15 & 38 (35)

Game 4: Bihar 181/2 (20) lost to Andhra 186/8 (19.4) by 2 wickets

T20 Debut: Pietar Mardi, Sakib Hussain

Highlights: Babul Kumar 72 (50), Bipin Saurabh 52 (39), Abhijeet Saket 3/31

Game 5: Bihar 119/10 (19.4) lost to Saurashtra 124/2 (14.1) by 8 wickets

T20 Debut: Roshan Madhav

Game 6: Bihar 161/7 (20) lost to Gujarat 165/6 (14) by 4 wickets

Highlights: Mangal Mahrour 51* (37), Sakib Hussain 4/20

Tournament Stats

Highest Scorers

1. Bipin Saurabh: 141 @ 23.50, 1x50
2. Sakibul Gani 140 @ 28.00
3. Sachin Kumar 127 @ 31.75

Highest Wicket-takers

1. Anuj Raj: 9 @ 14.56
2. Abhijeet Saket: 7 @ 25.14
3. Sakib Hussain: 4 @ 11.75

Top Score: Babul Kumar 72 vs Andhra 

Best Bowling: Sakib Hussain 4/20 vs Gujarat

Players Used: 20

T20 Debuts: 7

Overall, not much to write about for the Bihar team, although the things are improving slightly.

Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021: Bihar Review

BCCI managed to conduct the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy across 6 bio-secure bubbles. Given their previous performances, Bihar had moved out of the Plate group. And the step-up to the Elite level was too big a gap for the team. Bihar lost all their 5 games and were competitive in only one game against Odisha. 

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

Game 1: Bihar 189/10 (45.5) lost to Railways 190/0 (29) by 10 wickets 

Highlights: Anuj Raj 72 from No.9 

List A Debut: Anuj Raj, Akash Raj, Rahul Kumar, Shabbir Khan 

Game 2: Karnataka 354/3 (50) beat Bihar 87/10 (27.2) by 267 runs 

Game 3: Bihar 193/10 (46.1) lost to Uttar Pradesh 194/5 (28) by 5 wickets 

Highlights: Yashaswi Rishav 67 

List A Debut: Lakhan Raja, Rishav Raj, Yashasvi Rishav, Suraj Kashyap 

One unnamed Bihar player tested positive for Covid-19 prior to the game. 

Game 4: Bihar 255/7 (50) lost to Odisha 258/3 (48.1) by 7 wickets 

Highlights: Babul Kumar 78 

List A Debut: Apurva Anand 

Game 5: Bihar 148/10 (40.2) lost to Kerala 149/1 (8.5) by 9 wickets 

Highlights: Babul Kumar 64 

List A Debut: Vikash Patel 

Kerala went hammer and tongs to overhaul Bihar’s target! 

Tournament Stats 

Highest Scorers 

1. Babul Kumar 181 @ 26.20 with 2x50s 
2. Sakibul Gani 111 @ 22.20 
3. Anuj Raj 104 @ 26.00 with 1x50 

Top Innings: Babul Kumar 78 vs Odisha 

Most Wickets 

1. Ashutosh Aman 3 @ 63.00 
2. Anuj Raj 3 @ 69.67 
3. Rahul Kumar 2 @ 70.50 

Best Bowling: Ashutosh Aman 2/44 vs Uttar Pradesh 

Player Count: 18 

List A Debuts: 10 

So 5 straight losses and one covid positive result. Not too great a series. 

And now the team moves back into uncertainty as we do not know when the next fixture will come up!