Nikhil Haldipur's bright unbeaten 131 was the feature of Bengal's easy eight wicket victory over Assam in the East Zone Ranji Trophy one day match at the Eden Gardens in Calcutta on Thursday.

Winning the toss, Assam posted a modest total of 206 for eight in 50 overs. SR Zuffri (40) and VR Samant (48) shared the only notable stand of the innings - 68 for the third wicket off 14 overs.

Bengal coasted to victory with 13.3 overs to spare. Openers Haldipur and AA Lahiri (27) gave them a flying start by putting on 128 runs off 17.4 overs. Bengal then suffered a minor setback with O.Singh removing both Lahiri and DD Gupta in the same over without any addition to the score. But Haldipur and Rohan Gavaskar then took Bengal to victory with an unbroken third wicket partnership of 79 runs off 19.3 overs. While Gavaskar was content to play second fiddle and remained unbeaten with 26 off 59 balls, Haldipur made a number of scintillating shots and his unbeaten 131 was scored off just 109 balls with 21 fours.

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