BHUBANESWAR 27-Dec-2016
Odisha ended their impressive Ranji Trophy campaign this season with a tame draw in the quarterfinals against Gujarat at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur today. Riding on a record-breaking unbeaten knock of 359 by Samit Gohil, Gujarat reached semifinals by virtue of taking first-innings lead in their drawn quarter-final match against Odisha.
Gohil broke the world-record for the highest score by an opener, carrying his bat in first-class cricket on the fifth and final day against Odisha. Resuming their second innings at the overnight score of 514 for eight, Gujarat folded up for a mammoth total of 641. Chasing an impossible target of 706 runs victory, Odisha finished with 81 for one. The highlight of Odisha second innings was an explosive unbeaten 59 by Subhranshu Senapati, who hit four boundaries and five sixes in his 58-ball knock.
Gohil, who broke the record set by Surrey opener Bobby Abel in 1899, faced 723 balls for his majestic knock, which was studded with 45 boundaries and one six. Left-arm spinner Dhiraj Singh was the most successful bowler for Odisha with a haul of six wickets for 147 runs. With this haul he crossed the 100-wicket mark in first-class cricket.
Despite squandering the opportunity to play semifinals, Odisha achieved a memorable success this season by reaching quarterfinals after a gap of 15 years. Earlier at the league stage, Odisha finished third in Group-B, gathering 22 points from eight games. They won two, lost one and drew five. On individual capacity, allrounder Biplab Samantaray was most successful, scoring 517 runs, including one hundred, five fifties and bagging 13 wickets.
In batting department, Samantaray was followed by Subhranshu Senapati, captain Govinda Poddar and Sandeep Pattanaik with contributions of 497, 471 and 454 runs respectively. Dhiraj Singh and Suryakanta shared the bowling honours with 28 wickets each.
Earlier in reply to a competitive total of 263 by Gujarat, Odisha folded up for 199 to concede a lead of 64 runs. Odisha allrounder Deepak Behera, who stitched together 72 runs for the eighth wicket with Suryakant Pradhan, remained unbeaten on 41. Jasprit Bumrah was most successful bowler for Gujarat, bagging five wickets for 41 runs.
Put into bat by Odisha captain Govind Poddar earlier on the opening day, Gujarat batsmen had a torrid time against Odisha pace bowlers, who wreaked havoc by reducing the opposition to 71 for six. But Chirag Gandhi and Rush Kalaria rescued Gujarat by stitching together 154 runs for the seventh-wicket partnership. Pace spearhead Basant Mohanty was most successful Odisha bowler with a rich haul of five wickets for 68 runs. This was the 16th five-wicket haul by Mohanty and he needs three more to complete 300 wickets in first-class matches.
Odisha started their first innings on an inauspicious note, losing the wicket of opener Ranjit Singh with just one run on the board. But other opener Sandeep Pattnaik and Subhranshu Senapati repaired the damage with an 82-run partnership for the second wicket. However, Odisha innings nosedived at this juncture as six wickets fell for 18 runs. India speedster Bumrah shattered the opposition middle-order with a four-wicket burst, which included that of captain Govind Poddar and top allrounder Biplab Samantray.
The plight of Odisha would have been horrible if Pradhan and Behera had not come to the rescue of the team. Known for his dare-devil batting style, Pradhan struck five sixes and two fours in his 27-ball cameo knock before he was dismissed by R Bhatt. Pattnaik and Senapati made useful contributions of 43 and 30 respectively.
SCOREBOARD
GUJARAT (1st innings): S Gohil c Rawat b Behera 4, P Panchal c Samantaray b Behera 2, B Merai c Pradhan b Behera 31, Parthiv Patel c Rawat b Mohanty 12, M Juneja lbw Mohanty 7, R Bhatt c Pattanaik b Samantaray 6, Chirag Gandhi c R Singh b Mohanty 81, Rush Kalaria c Poddar b Mohanty 73, Mehul Patel lbw D Singh 28, H Patel (not out) 2, J Bumrah lbw Mohanty 0; Extras (nb-12, w-1, lb-4) 17
Total (All out; 95.4 overs) 263
Fall of wickets: 1-8 (Panchal, 3.2 ov), 2-9 (Gohil, 5.5 ov), 3-42 (P Patel, 19.1 ov), 4-54 (Juneja, 23.2 ov), 5-68 (Bhatt, 29.3 ov), 6-71 (Merai, 30.6 ov), 7-225 (Kalaria, 84.1 ov), 8-238 (Gandhi, 89.2 ov), 9-262 (M Patel, 94.5 ov), 10-263 (Bumrah, 95.4 ov)
Bowling: Suryakant Pradhan 20-4-54-0, Deepak Behera 20-1-50-3, Basant Mohanty 22.4-5-68-5, Biplab Samantaray 13-2-33-1, Dhiraj Singh 18-5-47-1, Govinda Poddar 2-0-7-0.
ODISHA (1st innings): Sandeep Pattanaik lbw H Patel 43, Ranjit Singh c Gohil b Kalaria 1, Subhransu Senapati c P Patel b Bumrah 30, Govinda Poddar c P Patel b Bumrah 0, Abhishek Yadav b Bumrah 8, Biplab Samantaray c P Patel b Bumrah 0, Saurabh Rawat lbw Kalaria 2, Deepak Behera (not out) 41, Suryakant Pradhan c&b Bhatt 47, Basant Mohanty c P Patel b Bumrah 12, Dhiraj Singh lbw H Patel 0; Extras (nb-8, w-1, b-4, lb-2) 15
Total (All out; 73.1 overs) 199
Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Ranjit Singh, 2.6 ov), 2-83 (Senapati, 34.1 ov), 3-83 (Poddar, 36.6 ov), 4-91 (Pattanaik, 41.2 ov), 5-91 (Yadav, 42.4 ov), 6-92 (Samantaray, 46.2 ov), 7-101 (Rawat, 50.1 ov), 8-173 (Pradhan, 62.4 ov), 9-192 (Mohanty, 70.5 ov), 10-199 (D Singh, 73.1 ov)
Bowling: R Kalaria 18-8-42-2, J Bumrah 23-9-41-5, Mehul Patel 12-1-60-0, H Patel 18.1-10-47-2, R Bhatt 2-0-3-1
GUJARAT (2nd innings): S Gohil (not out) 359, P Panchal c Yadav b D Singh 81, B Merai lbw D Singh 27, R Bhatt lbw Mohanty 14, M Juneja lbw Pradhan 24, Parthiv Patel b D Singh 40, Chirag Gandhi lbw D Singh 6, Rush Kalaria lbw D Singh 11, Mehul Patel b Poddar 16, H Patel c Yadav b Samantaray 18, J Bumrah lbw D Singh 13; Extras (nb-6, w-2, b-14, lb-10) 32
Total (All out; 227.4 overs) 641
Fall of wickets: 1-149 (Panchal, 45.2 ov), 2-198 (B Merai, 65.2 ov), 3-238 (R Bhatt, 80.1 ov), 4-277 (Juneja, 97.6 ov), 5-355 (P Patel, 125.2 ov), 6-391 (Gandhi, 135.5 ov), 7-420 (Kalaria, 145.4 ov), 8-453 (M Patel, 154.4 ov), 9-569 (Bumrah, 193.3 ov), 10-641 (H Patel, 227.4 ov)
Bowling: Suryakant Pradhan 39-5-149-1, Deepak Behera 25-6-56-0, Basant Mohanty 40-14-91-1, Dhiraj Singh 68-15-147-6, Biplab Samantaray 18.4-2-64-1, Govinda Poddar 30-3-93-1, Ranjit Singh 1-0-9-0, Saurabh Rawat 6-0-8-0
ODISHA (2nd innings): Govind Poddar b Bhatt 4, Ranjit Singh (not out) 18, Subhranshu Senapati (not out) 59
Total (1 wicket; 22 overs) 81
Fall of wicket: 1-6 (Poddar, 4.1 ov)
Bowling: R Bhatt 9-1-23-1, H Patel 9-2-40-0, Parthiv Patel 2-0-12-0, M Juneja 2-0-6-0.
