US-BORN Aman Raounder lined his prowess as a big hitter with a scintillating double century as out-of-reckoning Hyderabad thrashed Bengal by 107 runs in a Group B match to dent the latter’s quarter-final hopes. The 21-year-old Rao,who was signed by Rajasthan Royals at the IPL auction, smashed 12 fours and 13 sixes enroute to his 200 not out from 109 balls, achieved in just his third List A appearance, to take Hyderabad to a commanding 352 for 5.

 

It was the second double century of this edition of the tournament, after Odisha's Swastik Samal had struck 212 against Saurashtra in December last. Sent in to bat, Rao tore apart a Bengal bowling attack featuring Mohammed Shami (3-70), Akash Deep (0-78) and Mukesh Kumar (0-55), scoring 120 of his runs off the trio with a display of power and class. Rao put on 104 runs for the opening wicket with Rahul Singh (65) andlater added 87 runs with skipper Tilak Varma (34).

 

He brought up his double hundred in style, smashing a six off the final ball of the innings. Premier pacer Mohammed Siraj then produced a sensational opening spell en route to figures of 10-0-58-4 to derail Bengal’s chase as they folded for 245 in 44.4 overs. Siraj’s exploits left Bengal tottering at 73 for 4 and they could never recover from the blow. Shahbaz Ahmed waged a lone battle with anun beaten 113-ball 108 before running out of partners.

 

 

The loss left Bengal on four wins from six games to be placed at the thirds pot behind Vidarbha on NRR. In other results, MananVohra (102) and Arjun Azad (140) slammed commanding hundreds as Chandigarh registered a seven-wicket win over Assam. Sibsankar Roy made 106 not out to guide Assam to 284-7 but Chandigarh overhauled the target in 47.2 overs withVohra andAzad forminga 244-run alliance.