Punjab defeated Bengal by eight wickets in the CricInfo Trophy women's National Cricket Championship at the JDSA Ground in Jorhat on Tuesday.

Punjab, powered by a fine innings of 98 not out in 102 balls by Gulshan, reached the victory target of 170 in 35.3 overs. Though Gulshan lost Anjuman Bassi (8) at 31 in the seventh over, she sealed the match for Punjab with a 119-run second wicket stand in 29 overs with Gurdeep Kaur (24). Then Anjali Sharma (8) joined Gulshan to guide Punjab home in the 36th over.

Earlier, electing to bat, Bengal openers Anaya Mitra (11) and Seema Bhowmick (13) put on 28 runs in eight overs. But then they lost some quick wickets and were 56 for 3 in 19.3 overs. However Chandrabati Pall (36) and Rumeli Dhar (43) added 73 runs in 12.5 overs for the fourth wicket. Jhulan Goswami (19) then joined Chandrabati in a fifth wicket partnership worth 31 runs in 5.4 overs. But after that, there was little substance in the Bengal innings and they were all out for 169 in 45.2 overs.

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