BHUBANESWAR 29-Feb-2012 170
Odisha failed to qualify for the knock-out round of the Vijay Hazare Trophy Inter-State Limited-overs Cricket Tournament by finishing third with eight points from four matches in the East Zone League, which concluded in Kolkata today.
Led by Biplab Samantaray, Odisha started their campaign on a disappointing note by losing the first two matches against host Bengal and Assam. Though they beat Tripura and Jharkhand in the last two, the wins proved insufficient to earn them a ticket for the knock-out round.
Bengal emerged champions with four wins and 19 points, while Assam finished runners-up with three wins and 12 points. Jharkhand and Tripura occupied the fourth and last positions, scoring 3 and -2 points respectively. Both Bengal and Assam qualified for the knock-out round.
In the batting department, Govind Poddar returned with the highest total (222 runs) and best average (55.50). He was the only Odisha batsman to score a century in the tournament. Besides his maiden List A ton, he notched up a half-century.
Samantaray (160) and Natraj Behera (125) were other two to accumulate more than 100 runs. Samantaray, Behera, Paresh Patel and stumper Sujit Lenka were other four batsmen to hit a half-century each. The credit of achieving highest strike rate (111.84), however, went to Bibhudutta Panda.
Samantaray and pace spearhead Basant Mohanty were the joint highest wicket-takers with scalps each. Paresh Patel was the only bowler to take four wickets in an innings once. As many as five players from Odisha (Basant Mohanty, Subhrajit Sahoo, Aravind Singh, Amit Das and Sujit Lenka made their List-A debut in the tournament.
BRIEF SCORE:
FEBRUARY 20: Vs Bengal at Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Odisha: 210/10 in 49.3 overs (Sumitosh Praharaj 24, Natraj Behera 46, Biplab Samantaray 36, Govind Poddar 28, Aravind Singh 20, Deepak Behera 16, Basant Mohanty 15 n.o; A Dinda 2/43, I Saxena 3/20-3) lost to Bengal: 213/3 in 34.4 overs (W Saha 85 n.o, A Majumdar 100 n.o; Basant Mohanty 2/33-2) by 7 wkts.
FEBRUARY 22: Vs Assam at Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Odisha: 258/10 in 50 overs (Govind Poddar 136, Biplab Samantaray 43, Sumitosh Praharaj 26; G Sharma 4/31, D Goswami 2/35, A Das 2/67) lost to Assam: 260/4 in 45.2 overs (Dheeraj Jadhav 77, Sibsankar Roy 56, R Sathish 44 n.o) by 6 wkts.
FEBRUARY 24: Vs Tripura at Jadavpur University Complex in Kolkata:
Odisha: 291/10 in 49.5 overs (Biplab Samantaray 78, Govind Poddar 55, Natraj Behera 46, Bibhudutta Panda 33; Rana Dutta 4/74, T Chanda 2/50, M Morasingh 2/52) beat Tripura: 196/10 in 47.2 overs (S Singha 42, A Dey 40, M Morasingh 39 n.o; Paresh Patel 4/30, Basant Mohanty 2/28, Alok Mangaraj 2/49) by 95 runs.
FEBRUARY 29: Vs Jharkhand at Jadavpur University Complex in Kolkata
Jharkhand: 254/6 in 50 overs (K Deobrat 72, S Tiwary 57, S Ghosh 48; Biplab Samantaray 3/38) lost to Odisha: 255/5 in 42.3 overs (Paresh Patel 79, Sujit Lenka 56 n.o, Bibhudutta Panda 41 n.o, Natraj Behera 33, Tukuna Sahu 27; R Shukla 2/40) by 5 wickets.
