BOLANGIR 23-Jan-2015 52
Odisha inched closer to relegation from Group B of the Ranji Trophy Championship as they suffered a 10-wicket drubbing at the hands of Rajasthan here at Gandhi Stadium today. Forced to follow on after conceding a first-innings lead of 161 runs, hosts Odisha escaped innings defeat by making a modest total of 199 in the second essay. Needing 39 runs for victory, Rajasthan romped home with more than a day to spare.
This was the second embarrassing defeat for Odisha, who had lost their previous match to Delhi by an innings and 150 runs, also within three days. With this defeat, their third this season, Odisha slipped to the bottom of the group table with eight points from six matches. On the other hand, the thumping win fetched Rajasthan seven points and helped them climb up to third position with 18 points from seven games.
Spineless batting continued to be the main reason for Odisha`s miserable performance this season. The Abhilash Mallick-led team was made to follow on after getting bowled out at the overnight total of 144, in In reply to Rajasthan`s first innings total of 305.
The hosts batted slightly better in the second essay and managed to avoid the mortification of back-to-back innings defeat. This was possible thanks to a maiden first-class half-century by Anurag Sarangi (56 off 92b, 7x4, 1x6) and his 82-run partnership for the fifth wicket with debutant Pratik Das, who hit belligerent 45.
Left-arm pacer Tanveer-Ul-Haq was the wrecker-in-chief of Odisha`s second innings, scalping four wickets for 29 runs. Rajasthan captain Pankaj Singh was the second most successful bowler for his side, taking three wickets in the second innings and seven in the match.
Earlier, put into bat at this new first-class venue of Odisha, Rajasthan overcame critical situations twice to post a challenging total. After opening batsman Vineet Saxena and wicketkeeper Chetan Bist rescued them from 85 for five, putting on 110 runs in the sixth-wicket stand, tailenders Deepak Chahar and Pankaj Singh consolidated their position with a rapid-fire 59-run partnership for the ninth wicket. Saxena, in the process, scored his 15th first-class century, while Bist and Chahar hit a half-century each. Basant Mohanty was the most successful bowler for Odisha, bagging four wickets for 68 runs.
SCOREBOARD
RAJASTHAN (1st innings): P Sharma c Sahoo b Mohanty 0, V Saxena b Mohanty 106, R Bist lbw D Behera 10, A Menaria lbw Mohanty 13, R Bishnoi Sr b D Behera 11, P Yadav (run out) 15, C Bist c Sahoo b Pradhan 51, T Haq c Samantaray b Mohanty 3, D Chahar (not out) 57, Pankaj Singh c Mohanty b D Singh 27, A Choudhary c Sahoo b Samantaray 7; Extras (b-1, lb-2, nb-2) 5
Total (All out; 115.3 overs) 305
Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-21, 3-48, 4-65, 5-85, 6-195, 7-210, 8-229, 9-288, 10-305
Bowling: Basant Mohanty 32-14-68-4, Suryakant Pradhan 27-6-86-1, Deepak Behera 28-8-66-2, Biplab Samantaray 13.3-4-25-1, Dhiraj Singh 15-3-57-1
ODISHA (1st innings): Subhrajit Sahoo lbw Choudhary 14, Natraj Behera c C Bist b P Singh 12, Abhilash Mallick c C Bist b Chahar 1, Anurag Sarangi c C Bist b P Singh 47, Byplay Samantaray lbw P Singh 11, Pratik Das c C Bist b T Haq 9, Govind Poddar c Bishnoi b Chahar 4, Deepak Behera (not out) 17, Suryakant Pradhan b P Singh 4, Basant Mohanty b Chahar 0, Dhiraj Singh (not out) 0; Extras (b-16, lb-7, nb-2) 25
Total (All out; 55.2 overs) 144
Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-20, 3-42, 4-69, 5-103, 6-119, 7-121, 8-129, 9-134, 10-144
Bowling: Pankaj Singh 19-5-47-4, D Chahar 15.2-4-30-4, T Haq 12-5-24-1, A Choudhary 9-2-20-1
ODISHA (2nd inninigs): S Sahoo c A Choudhary b Chahar 1, Natraj Behera c Bishnoi Sr b Haq 16, G Poddar c C Bist b Haq 17, A Sarangi c C Bist b P Sharma 56, B Samantaray b Haq 0, P Das b P Singh 45, A Mallick b P Singh 15, D Behera (run out) Bishnoi Sr 4, S Pradhan b P Singh 22, B Mohanty c C Bist b Haq 13, D Singh (not out) 0; Extras (b-2, lb-5, nb-2, w-1) 10
Total (All out; 52.4 overs) 199
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-29, 3-44, 4-44, 5-126, 6-148, 7-156, 8-166, 9-199, 10-199
Bowling: Pankaj Singh 14-1-50-3, D Chahar 6-0-20-1, A Choudhary 14-3-47-0, T Haq 7.5-1-29-4, P Yadav 3-1-6-0, A Menaria 4-0-17-0, P Sharma 4-1-23-1
RAJASTHAN (2nd innings): R Bist (not out) 20, P Sharma (not out) 21; Extras (lb-1) 1
Total (0 wkt; 6.4 overs) 42
Bowling: B Mohanty 3-0-21-1, D Behera 2-0-14-0, S Pradhan 1-0-2-0, Natraj Behera 0.4-0-4-0.
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CAPTION: Gandhi Stadium in Bolangir, the new first-class cricket venue of Odisha.
