Ranji Trophy: Odisha crush Assam to post first win

Odisha crushed Assam by nine wickets on the penultimate day of their four-day Ranji Trophy Elite Group-C match at Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati today. This was the first win in three matches for Odisha, who collected six points. However, Odisha squandered one bonus point as they could not win the match by a 10-wicket margin.

Young Odisha pace bowler Rajesh Mohanty played stellar role in the Odisha win, bagging six wickets for 55 runs in the second innings and 11 wickets for 86 runs in the match. This was his maiden five-wicket as well as 10-wicket haul in first-class cricket. He was rightly adjudged the man of the match.

Put in to bat earlier on the opening day, Assam struggled against Odisha pace-attack and were all out for 121 in 51.1 overs. Right-arm medium-fast bolwer Rajesh Mohanty was the wrecker-in-chief of the Assam innings, bagging five wickets for 31 runs.

In reply, Odisha were all out for 240. Anurag Sarangi (77 off 124b, 16x4) and captain Biplab Samantaray (61 off 189b, 9x4) hit a half-century each, while wicket-keeper Sujit Lenka contributed a useful 28.

Mr Extra turned out to be the third highest scorer for Odisha, contributing 36 runs. Ranjeet Mali was most successful Assam bowler with a haul of six wickets for 80 runs, while Mukhtar Hussain scalped three for 75.

In the second innings hosts Assam were bowled out for 132 despite a defiant half-century by Sibsankar Roy. Odisha used only three pace bowlers in the second innings and the trio proved too hot to handle for Assam. Of the other two pacers, Debabrata Pradhan picked up two for 35, while Basant Mohanty took one for 24.

Odisha then knocked off the required 14 runs for victory, losing the wicket of Anurag Sarangi in the second innings. Odisha will next meet Tripura at DRIEMS Ground at Tangi, 20kms from here from November 28 to December 1.

SCOREBOARD:

ASSAM (1st innings): Rishav Das c Poddar b R Mohanty 14, Parviz Aziz c Lenka b R Mohanty 3, Sibsankar Roy lbw Samantaray 16, Kunal Saikia c Sarangi b Pradhan 1, Riyan Parag lbw R Mohanty 24, Amit Sinha c Lenka b R Mohanty 5, Romario Sharma c Dhuper b D Singh 0, Arup Das c Poddar b B Mohanty 16, Ranjeet Mali c Lenka b Pradhan 28, Mukhtar Hussain c Lenka b R Mohanty 1, Rahul Singh (not out) 6; Extras (nb-1, w-1, lb-5) 7
Total (All out; 51.1 overs) 121
Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Aziz, 9.3 ov), 2-18 (Das, 13.1), 3-19 (Saikia, 14.1), 4-46 (S Roy, 25.6), 5-68 (Sinha, 35.2), 6-69 (Sharma, 36.5), 7-69 (Parag, 37.5), 8-103 (A Das, 46.3), 9-110 (Hussain, 47.5), 10-121 (Mali, 51.1)
Bowling: Basant Mohanty 13-4-22-1, Rajesh Mohanty 18-9-31-5, Debabrata Pradhan 7.1-1-27-2, Biplab Samantaray 5-3-3-1, Dhiraj Singh 8-0-33-1.

ODISHA (1st innings): Anurag Sarangi c Parag b Mali 77, Rajesh Dhuper lbw Hussain 1, Govinda Poddar b Hussain 0, Subhransu Senapati c Saikia b Hussain 10, Biplab Samantaray lbw Mali 61, Shantanu Mishra b Mali 17, Sujit Lenka c Saikia b Mali 28, Rajesh Mohanty c S Roy b Mali 0, Debabrata Pradhan lbw Mali 0, Basant Mohanty c Saikia b A Das 10, Dhiraj Singh (not out) 0; Extras (nb-8, w-1, b-10, lb-17) 36
Total (All out; 85.2 overs) 240
Fall of wickets: 1-16 (Dhuper, 7.2 ov), 2-16 (Poddar, 7.5), 3-45 (Senapati, 17.1), 4-112 (Sarangi, 40.4), 5-158 (Mishra, 60.5), 6-204 (Lenka, 74.5), 7-204 (R Mohanty, 74.6), 8-214 (Pradhan, 76.6), 9-228 (Samantaray, 82.1), 10-240 (B Mohanty, 85.2)
Bowling: Arup Das 24.2-10-34-1, Ranjeet Mali 30-9-80-6, Mukhtar Hussain 22-6-75-3, Riyan Parag 4-0-17-0, Rahul Singh 5-1-7-0.

ASSAM (2nd innings): Rishav Das c Lenka b Pradhan 15, P Aziz b R Mohanty 7, Sibsankar Roy c Samantaray b Pradhan 56, K Saikia lbw R Mohanty 0, R Parag lbw R Mohanty 0, Amit Sinha c Mishra b R Mohanty 7, Romario Sharma c Samantaray b B Mohanty 7, Arup Das (run out) Pradhan 5, Ranjeet Mali c Lenka b R Mohanty 11, Mukhtar Hussain (not out) 1, Rahul Singh c&b R Mohanty 0; Extras (nb-2, w-3, b-5, lb-13) 23
Total (All out; 50 overs) 132
Fall of wickets: 1-19 (Aziz, 5.4 ov), 2-33 (R Das, 12.5), 3-34 (Saikia, 15.5), 4-41 (Parag, 17.5), 5-61 (Sinha, 23.5), 6-86 (Sharma, 35.6), 7-96 (A Das, 38.3), 8-131 (Mali, 47.6), 9-131 (Roy, 48.1), 10-132 (R Singh, 49.6)
Bowling: B Mohanty 14-3-24-1, R Mohanty 21-3-55-6, Debabrata Pradhan 15-5-35-2.

ODISHA (2nd innings): Anurag Sarangi c&b Hussain 5, Govinda Poddar (not out) 9, Rajesh Dhuper (not out) 0; Extras (nb-2) 2
Total (1 wicket, 3.3 overs) 16
Fall of wicket: 1-12 (Sarangi, 2.4 ov)
Bowling: Arup Das 1-0-4-0, Ranjeet Mali 1.3-0-10-0, Mukhtar Hussain 1-0-2-1.
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PHOTO: Members of Odisha team after their win against Assam in Guwahati on Nov 22, 2018.