Rain frustrastes Orissa as Railway take charge

Unexpected rain and a 78-run partnership for the unfinished ninth wicket between Krishnakant Upadhyay and Mahesh Rawat frustrated Orissa, while opponents Railways reached comfortable position on the second day of their four-day Ranji Trophy Super League (Group-A) match at the East Coast Railway ground in Bhubaneswar today. Railways were 297 for eight in the first innings when rain stopped play for the day, 2.4 overs after the lunch break. Resuming at the overnight score of 176 for four, the railway side lost four wickets in the first hour to be reduced to 219 for eight. Among the two overnight not out batsmen, Sanjib Sanyal added six runs before being castled by Basant Mohanty for 26. Top scorer V Cheluvaraj also failed to last long as debutant Alok Sahoo had him caught by skipper Shiv Sundar Das for 88 (288 balls, 9x4). But stumper Rawat and tailender Upadhyay batted with caution and aggression to frustrate Orissa and guide Railways to a position of safety. Upadhyay played some aggressive shots to make and unbeaten 45, while Rawat played as the second fiddle to remain unconquered on 33. Orissa medium pacers, spearheaded by Test discard Debasis Mohanty, continued to bowl well, bagging all the four wickets that fell in the day. Debasis claimed three wickets for 40, while Basant Mohanty and Alok Sahoo picked up two wickets each. SCOREBOARD: RAILWAYS (1st innings): F Fazal (run out) 32, V Cheluvaraj c SS Das b Sahoo 88, S Bangar c H Das b D Mohanty 10, TP Singh b B Mohanty 11, Y Goud c H Das b A Sahoo 23, S Sanyal b B Mohanty 26, M Rawat (batting) 33, KV Sharma lbw b D Mohanty 0, M Kartik c Pati b D Mohanty 12, K Upadhyay (batting) 45: Extras (b-3, lb-12, nb-1, w-1) 17. Total (8 wkts, 119.4 overs) 297 Fall of wickets: 1-53, 2-79, 3-107, 4-142, 5-186, 6-191, 7-219, 8-219 Bowling: Debasis Mohanty 29-12-40-3, Basant Mohanty 29.4-9-58-2, Alok Sahoo 28-4-88-2, Dhiraj Singh 25-3-84-0, Niranjan Behera 7-1-10-0, Rakesh Mohanty 1-0-2-0.