21-Dec-2008 104
Off-spinner Mohnish Patel returned with career-best match figures of 12 wickets for 104 runs to guide Gujarat to an innings and 83 run victory over hosts Orissa on the fourth and final day of their Elite Group-A Ranji match at the East Coast Railway ground in Bhubaneswar today.
Needing 233 runs to avoid the humiliating innings defeat, Orissa were skittled out for 149, which included five penalty runs. Earlier, resuming at the overnight first innings score of 382 for eight, Gujarat added 12 runs before being all out for 394.
Twenty-year-old Parmar, who had bagged six wickets for 53 in the first innings, scalped six more for 51 runs to become the most successful bowler in the Elite Division with a total of 34 wickets, one ahead of teammate Sidharth Trivedi and Maharashtra`s S Fallah.
The innings victory fetched Gujarat six points and increased their tally to 29 points from seven matches, which included four wins, one defeat and two draws. Gujarat finished second in the group `A` table, behind leaders Mumbai (31 points) and ahead of third-placed Saurashtra (23 points). These three teams qualified for the quarterfinals, while Delhi (20), Punjab (12), Hyderabad (10) and Orissa (9) retained their places in the Elite league.
Orissa finished seventh in the group with one win, four defeats and two draws, while bottom-placed Rajasthan (3 points) were relegated to the Plate division.
Mediocre batting continued to hunt Orissa as they were dismissed within 165 runs for the sixth time in a row (80 and 96 vs Delhi, 108 and 118 vs Mumbai, 162 and 149 vs Gujarat).
In the second innings against Gujarat, no batsman except Niranjan Behera could reach the quarter-century mark. Behera scored with 50 with the help of five fours and a six.
Barring the nine-wicket victory against Punjab here last month, Orissa`s performance in the Super League proved to be pretty ordinary. The resignation of chief coach Venkatpathy Raju and injuries to captain Shiv Sundar Das and his opening partner Bikash Swarup Pati compounded the plight of the team.
Inadequate preparation and alleged interference in the selection of players also caused additional trouble.
However, amidst the lack-lustre show, the performance of new-ball bowlers Debasis Mohanty and Basant Mohanty came as silver lining. The duo secured places among the top 10 bowlers with 28 wickets apiece.
Brief scores: Orissa 162 and 149 all out in 58.4 overs (Niranjan Behera 50, Natraj Behera 22: Mohnish Parmar 6/51, Timil Patel 3/46) lost to Gujarat 394 all out in189.2 overs (Parthiv Patel 206, Priyank Panchal 59, Timil Patel 48: Debasis Mohanty 2/41, Dhiraj Singh 2/91, Bibhudutta Panda 2/109).
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