Minnows Assam stunned Madhya Pradesh by four wickets to enter the quarter-finals of the National One Day Championship for Vijay Hazare Trophy here today.
Opting to bat at the Port Stadium, Madhya Pradesh were all-out for 210 in 48.4 overs with Mumbai Indians seamer Abu Nechim Ahmed grabbing five for 32. In reply, Assam scored the required runs in 45.5 overs riding on No 3 batsman Shib Shankar Roy's career-best unbeaten knock of 97.
Assam will now take on heavyweights and last year's runners-up Mumbai in the quarterfinal scheduled on Thursday.
It was Abu Nechim's second spell that started the collapse with MP losing their last six wickets for only 24 runs after being comfortably placed at 186 for four.
For the losing side, India discard Naman Ojha (72, 7x4, 1x6) and Udit Birla (74, 4x4) added 105 runs for the third wicket and the only other score in excess of 20 came from Rameez Khan who made 27.
In reply, Shib Shankar anchored the chase to perfection facing 110 balls hitting eight fours and a six in the process.
He had two crucial partnerships of 55 and 57 for the fourth and sixth wickets with Tarjinder Singh (28) and Rajdeep Das (27) respectively.
Brief Scores: MP 210 in 48.4 overs (Naman Ojha 72, Udit Birla 74, Abu Nechim Ahmed 5/32)
Assam 211/6 (Shib Shankar Roy 97 no, Tarjinder Singh 28, Iswar Pandey 2/36). Assam won by four wickets.
Quarter final: Mumbai versus Assam (Feb 28).
