Cuttack , February 18: Host Orissa lifted the East Zone Vijay Hazare Trophy, outplaying defending champions Bengal by six wickets in the last league match of the inter-state one-day tournament at Barabati Stadium here today. All-rounder Paresh Patel emerged the hero of the Orissa win, hitting an unbeaten century and bagging one wicket.

Orissa topped the zonal league table with 16 points from four matches, while Bengal finished runners-up with nine points the same as Tripura, who occupied the third place with a seven-wicket victory over Tripura in another match of the day at Ravenshaw University ground. The top two finishers qualified to represent East Zone in the knock-out round of the tournament.

This is the third time that Orissa won the East Zone title. Their last title triumph had taken place against Bengal at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata in 2005. They had won their first title in 2000-01.

Paresh Patel today slammed an unbeaten 123 off 129 balls with the help of 10 fours and three sixes. He compiled 102 runs for the opening wicket with Natraj Behera (55) to lay a solid foundation for the home team, who were chasing a target of 284. Earlier, Bengal rode on a half-century each by Sudip Chatterjee and Manoj Tiwari to post a healthy total of 283 for seven.

Incentive followed the title triumph as Orissa Cricket Association secretary Asirbad Behera announced a cash prize of Rs 50,000 each for members of the playing XI and Rs 25,000 each for non-playing members and coach.

SCOREBOARD:

BENGAL: Sudip Chatterjee c Panda b Samantaray 53, Srivats Goswamy c H Das b D Mohanty 15, Sourav Ganguly (run out) 23, Manoj Tiwari c H Das b Patel 86, A Jhunjhunwala c D Singh b Panda 6, Wridhiman Saha (not out) 49, Arnab Nandi c RR Das b Samantaray 20, S Sarkar c RR Das b D Mohanty 7, Ashok Dinda (not out) 10; Extras (lb-2, w-12) 14.
Total (7 wkts, 50 overs) 283

Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-61, 3-172, 4-183, 5-195, 6-232, 7-257

Bowling: Debasis Mohanty 8-0-33-2, Alok Sahoo 8-0-44-0, Bibhudatta Panda 9-0-55-1, Dhiraj Singh 5-0-31-0, Rakesh Mohanty 1-0-9-0, Biplab Samantaray 10-0-48-2, Niranjan Behera 1-0-14-0, Paresh Patel 8-0-47-1.

ORISSA: Paresh Patel (n.o) 123, Natraj Behera c&b Tiwari 55, Niranjan Behera c Saha b Bose 38, Haladhar Das c Nandi b Saxena 39, Rashmi Ranjan Das b Nandi 11, Rakesh Mohanty (n.o) 14; Extras (lb-2, b-1, w-3, nb-1) 7
Total (4 wkts, 48.2 overs) 287

Fall of wickets: 1-102, 2-190, 3-240, 4-262

Bowling: Ranadeb Bose 6-0-36-1, Ashok Dinda 9-0-58-0, S Sarkar 5-0-31-0, Arnab Nandi 8.2-0-39-1, Iresh Saxena 10-0-49-1, A Jhunjhunwala 3-0-23-0, Manoj Tiwari 3-0-22-1, Sourav Ganguly 4-0-26-0.