BHUBANESWAR 14-Feb-2013 197
Skipper Biplab Samantaray’s fine all-round performance went in vain as Odisha went down fighting to host Bengal by 11 runs in their opening league match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy East Zone Tournament at Jadavpur University Complex in Kolkata today.
Opting to field first, Odisha rode on a four-wicket haul by pace spearhead Basant Mohanty to dismiss formidable Bengal for 186 in 46.1 overs. But the visitors squandered a good opportunity to start their campaign on a winning note as they folded up for 175 in 41.5 overs, despite a belligerent 51 (64 balls, 4x8) by Samantaray.
Bengal captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla starred in the exciting win, taking his career-best List-A haul of five wickets for 34 runs. Bowling in tandem with Shukla, speedster Ashok Dinda scalped four wickets for 48 runs. The win fetched Bengal four points, while Odisha drew blank.
Odisha started the chase on horrible note as openers Natraj Behera and Paresh Patel fell to Dinda without opening their account. Though decent performance by the middle-order, comprising Niranjan Behera, Govind Poddar and Samantaray, kept Odisha’s chances alive, it was Shukla, who took the game away from the visitors with his maiden five-wicket haul in one-dayers.
Earlier, Manoj Tiwary hit his 19th List-A half-century (55 off 95, 4x6, 6x1) to help Bengal muster a competitive total. Among other successful Odisha bolwers, medium-pacer Samantaray and left-arm spinner Paresh Patel chipped in with two wickets each.
SCOREBOARD
BENGAL: S Lahiri lbw Mohanty 4, A Majumder lbw Mohanty 8, Sandipan Das c H Das b Samantaray 14, Manoj Tiwary c Natraj Behera b Patel 55, W Saha c Mangaraj b Patel 36, Arindam Das b Mohanty 22, LR Shukla c&b D Behera 3, D Das c H Das b Mohanty 1, Shami Ahmed c Natraj Behera b Samantaray 26, A Dinda (run out) 1, I Saxena (not out) 2; Extras (b-2, lb-6, w-6) 14
Total (10 wkts; 46.1 overs) 186
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-14, 3-42, 4-119, 5-129, 6-136-, 7-140, 8-179, 9-182
Bowling: Basant Mohanty 11.2-3-22-4, Deepak Behera 10-2-30-1, Alok Mangaraj 7-0-40-0, Biplab Samantaray 10-1-47-2, Patesh Patel 5-0-29-2, Bibhudutta Panda 3-0-10-0
ODISHA: Natraj Behera c Saxena b Dinda 0, Paresh Patel b Dinda 0, Niranjan Behera c A Das b Dinda 29, Govind Poddar lbw Shukla 44, Biplab Samantaray b Shukla 51, Haladhar Das b Shukla 0, Bibhudutta Panda lbw Tiwary 22, Lagnajit Samal c Ahmed b Dinda 11, Deepak Behera c Saha b Shukla 7, Basant Mohanty (not out) 4, Alok Mangaraj lbw Shukla 0; Extras (lb-1, w-6) 7
Total (10 wkts; 41.5 overs) 175
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-2, 3-74, 4-94, 5-94, 6-131, 7-164, 8-166, 9-175
Bowling: Ashok Dinda 12-2-48-4, Shami Ahmed 9-0-36-0, Laxmi Ratan Shukla 9.5-1-34-5, Sandipan Das 2-0-6-0, Iresh Saxena 5-0-17-0, Manoj Tiwary 3-0-28-1, S Lahiri 1-0-5-0
