LUCKNOW, Oct. 12 -- A sparkling half-century by opener Sampada Dixit and her 81-run opening wicket stand with Varnika helped former runners-up Uttar Pradesh notch up their third consecutive win in the Senior Women's T20 Trophy, defeating Bihar by 63 runs, at the PCA New Cricket Stadium at New Chandigarh on Saturday. Now, Uttar Pradesh lead the Elite Group A with 12 points. Dixit struck 59-ball 68 with the help of six boundaries to score her maiden half-century of the season whereas Varnika scored 44 in 34 balls with the help of nine hits to the fence as Uttar Pradesh scored 156/4 while batting first after winning the toss. Varnika was the first to go after being caught by Yashita Singh off Pragati Singh, whereas Dixit was run out. Skipper Sonali Singh too was run out after making 18-ball 25, which contained two boundaries. Bihar were off to a poor start in reply as Prity (1) was bowled by Soinam Yadav in the very second over. Though fellow opener Vishalakshmi (27, 34b, 3x4) and Yashita Singh (18, 12b, 4x4) tried their best to adorn teams' innings, in vain as wicket kept falling like nine pins before the side being restricted at 93/9. Sonam Yadav turned out to be the wrecker-in-chief, bagging 3/17, whereas Sonali Singh took 2/9. Archana CDevi, Shilpi Yadav and Almas Bhardwaj shared three wickets between them. Aayan Akram's maiden half-century of the season went into vain as former champions Uttar Pradesh lost to Punjab by 16 runs in their Elite Group E encounter of the Under-19 Vinoo Mankad Trophy, at the Usha Martin Ground in Ranchi on Saturday. Despite Akram's 83-ball 65, which contained three boundaries and four sixes, Uttar pradesh could make 233/9 while chasing Punjab's 349/9. Yashu Pradhan (33, 43b, 2x4, 2x60, Bhavya Goyal (32, 71b, 4x4) and Bhavi Sharma (28, 36b, 3x4, 1x6) were the other main run getters for Uttar Pradesh. For Punjab Tanmay Dharni (3/45), Rajvir Jaswal 92/40), Tanmay dharni (2/45) and Ishan Sood (2/51) excelled for Punjab. Earlier, Punjab even after having a shaky start, managed to score 249/9. Skipper Aryan Yadav smacked 99-ball 102 with the help of seven boundaries and four sixes. Sagar Vierk (31) and Rajvir Jaswal (23) also scored well. Piyush Choudhary took 4/22, whereas Shanthanu Singh and Kartikey Varshney shared four wickets between them for Uttar Pradesh. Hard-hitting batter Sameer Rizvi has been named captain to lead Uttar Pradesh in this year's Under-23 Col CK Nayudu Trophy as the season vegibs with Elite Group D match against hosts Himachal Pradesh at Bilaspur from October 16. Former Ranji Trophy coach, Gyanendra Pandey has been named coach of the side. Other members of the team include, Rituraj Sharma, Swastik Chikara, Adarsh Singh, Amaan, Kavya Teotia, Aashiyan, Shivansh Yadav, Akshay Dubey, Naman Tewari, Abdul Rehman, Ankur Sharma, Vansh Chaudhary, Shubham Mishra and Akshu Bajwa....