A keen battle for the first innings lead highlighted the three day East zone Vijay Merchant (under-16) Trophy game between Assam and Bihar which concluded at Maligaon on Wednesday. Ultimately the last pair carried Bihar to a narrow lead of nine runs and first innings points.

Put in to bat, Assam scored 345, thanks in the main to Souvik Das' 108. Coming in at No 7, he helped Assam recover from a bad start (119 for five). With Mrigen Talukdar (91 off 108 balls with eleven fours and two sixes) he put on 110 runs for the sixth wicket off 30.3 overs. Then with Khanin Saikia (30) he added 106 runs for the eighth wicket. Souvik who was ninth out at 344, batted three hours, faced 138 balls and hit nine fours. Ambuj Kumar was the most successful bowler with four for 56.

Bihar in contrast, made a good start with Manish Vardhan and Prabhat Kumar (61) putting on 164 runs for the second wicket off 54 overs. Then Manish and Atul Priyanka (27) consolidated the position with a third wicket stand of 71 runs off 38.5 overs. Manish Vardhan who was fourth out for 159, batted 379 minutes, faced 323 balls and hit 22 fours. Bihar however suffered a middle order collapse and from 272 for two they slumped to 293 for eight. Sanjeev Rajan (14) and Ranjan Kumar Singh (27) then put on 29 runs for the ninth wicket and then finally Ranjan Kumar Singh and Ambuj Kumar (20) added 32 runs for the last wicket off 9.5 overs to take Bihar past the Assam total. Assam, in their second innings, were 49 for one wicket when stumps were finally drawn.

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