Dhiraj, Shiv, Niranjan help Orissa fight back

Skipper Shiv Sundar Das, front-line batsman Niranjan Behera and spin bowler Dhiraj Singh helped Orissa fight back to a strong position in their four-day Ranji Trophy Super League match at Veer Surendra Sai Stadium at Sambalpur today. Orissa scored 173 for one in reply to group leaders Tamil Nadu’s first innings total of 361 at the close of the second day. Test discard Das, who found his form after a long gap, hit an unbeaten 71 with the help of 11 fours and a six. He compiled 173 runs for the unfinished second wicket with Behera, whose unbeaten 88 included 15 hits to the rope. The timely partnership rescued the home side from a disastrous start, which saw opener Bikash Swarup Pati getting out in the first ball of the innings. Earlier in the day, Tamil Nadu lost their last five wickets for 38 runs to be dismissed for 361. Resuming at the overnight score of 323 for five, the visitors failed to conitinue their success with the bat. Century-maker Arun Karthik was castled by Alok Sahu before he could add any run to his overnight score of 118. C Ganapathy, the other overnight, batsman added 20 runs before he was caught by S S Das off the bowling of Preetamjit Das. Left-arm spinner Dhiraj Singh cut short the tail, dismissing L Balaji and A Srinivas without score to finish with four wickets for 109. SCOREBOARD TAMIL NADU (1st innings): S Anirudha lbw b D Singh 53, A Mukund c H Das b D Mohanty 14, Arun Karthik lbw b Sahoo 118, Dinesh Karthik lbw b D Singh 1, R Prasanna b D Mohanty 28, R Sathish c & b Mullick 43, C Ganapathy c RR Das b P Das 72, R Ashwin c S Das b Sahoo 0, V Yomahesh (not out) 17, L Balaji c N Behera b D Singh 0, Aushik Srinivas c H Das b D Singh 0: Extras (b-1, lb-7, w-4, nb-3) 15 Total (all out: 112 overs) 361 Fall of wickets: 1-40, 2-89, 3-100, 4-149, 5-220, 6-324, 7-328, 8-358, 9-359, 10-361. Bowling: Debasis Mohanty 19-7-43-2, Alok Sahoo 21-3-79-2, Preetamjit Das 22.3-5-62-1, Dhiraj Singh 31-5-109-4, Niranjan Behera 3-0-13-0, Rakesh Mohanty 8-2-25-0, Pravanjan Mullick 7.3-1-22-1. ORISSA (1st innings): Bikash Pati lbw b Ganapathy 0, Shiv Sundar Das (batting) 71, Niranjan Behera (batting) 88: Extras (b-6, lb-5, nb-3) 14. Total (1 wkt, 66 overs) 173 Fall of wickets: 1-0 Bowling: C Ganapathy 12-2-23-1, L Balaji 13-1-36-0, Rajgopal Sathish 3-1-6-0, R Ashwin 13-3-25-0, Aushik Srinivas 16-8-35-0, V Yomahesh 5-0-23-0, Abhinav Mukund 3-1-14-0.