Odisha end Ranji campaign with humiliating innings defeat

Odisha`s disastrous campaign in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group A competition ended on a humiliating note as they lost to Rajasthan by an innings and 56 runs on the penultimate day at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur today. Following on after conceding a first-innings lead of 289 runs, Odisha folded up for 233 in the second innings despite a belligerent 82 (100b, 12x4, 1x6) by skipper Biplab Samantaray and a polished half-century by opener Subhrajit Sahoo (55 off 100b, 8x4).
Young pace bowler Rituraj Singh starred in the Rajasthan victory, bagging six wickets for 75 runs in the second innings. Earlier, resuming their first innings at the overnight score of 76 for six, Odisha were bowled out for 134, losing their last three wickets for 16 runs. The absence of specialist batman Bikash Swarup Pati, who was ruled out for two weeks due to a hand injury he suffered while fielding in the home team’s only innings, reduced Odisha’s batting line-up to 10 players.
Govind Poddar waged a lone battle for Odisha in the first innings, hitting an unbeaten 52 with the help of nine hits to the rope. His 69-run seventh wicket stand with Deepak Behera saved their team from a total collapse. Medium-pacer Sumit Mathur was the most successful Rajasthan bowler in the first innings, scalping five wickets for 30 runs.
Rajasthan put themselves in a strong position by mustering a formidable total of 423 runs in the first innings. Top-order batsmen did a good job with Robin Bisht scoring an unbeaten century and Vineet Saxena, skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Puneet Yadav hitting a half-century each. Basant Mohanty lived up to his reputation as the pace spearhead of Odisha, scalping four wickets for 104 runs, while Mangaraj and Biplab Samantaray claimed a brace each.
The struggling Odisha side, which got relegated to the Plate Division after drawing the previous match against Railways, ended its campaign with two points.