Calcutta: Sourav Ganguly’s unbeaten 62 off 45 balls and Avishek Jhunjhunwala’s all-round show helped Sourashish Lahiri’s team beat Laxmi Ratan Shukla’s side by eight wickets in a T20 practice match at the Eden on Sunday. Bengal begin their campaign in the East Zone T20 meet in Dhanbad on Wednesday.

Sourav, who took part in a few practice matches for the Kolkata Knight Riders during their camp in Gurgaon earlier this month, showed he was in good nick. The former India captain won’t be in Dhanbad, but has promised to help out Bengal in few of their Ranji Trophy matches this season.

Sourav was ably supported by Avishek, who remained not out on 39 off 35 balls with four boundaries and a six. Batting first, Shukla’s side was bundled out for 119 in 19.3 overs.

Sourav, who came in at No.3 with the scoreboard reading six, showed elegance and flair in hitting six fours and two sixes. He opened his account with a flick off Ashok Dinda for four and followed it up with another delectable cut off Arnab Nandy in the next over.

The fluent drives followed, and once he had settled down, the former India captain stepped out to the spinners, hitting Rohan Gavaskar and Shiv Sagar Singh for sixes.

The bowling lacked bite with Dinda even guilty of sending down a beamer — the ball might have slipped out of his hand, though — at Sourav.

The Bengal think tank, however, was hoping that the experience from Sunday’s match would help them in the tournament.

“Sourav’s innings was a good lesson for the team. This experience will help the youngsters learn… That is the idea of having such practice matches,” said Roger Binny.

The coach was confident of a good show. “We’ve had enough of match practice…. We’ve played three matches on the trot. The team is getting into place… The batsmen are in good form. Bowling has always been our strength.”

Binny is counting on the experience of his senior players in the season opener. “Experience counts in such tournaments. T20 is different from other formats in the sense that one bad over can be disastrous.”

A member of the 1983 World Cup winning squad, Binny felt T20 was not good for players at the junior level.

Shukla too sounded positive. “All the players are in good form. We have a lot of experience in our team. In T20, no team can be taken lightly. There can be no prediction. We’ve got to put in more than 100 per cent.”