Ranji Trophy: Murty haul in vain as Orissa perish

A six-wicket haul by DS Murthy went in vain as a new-look Orissa lost to Bengal by 355 runs on the last day of their three-day East Zone Ranji Trophy match at Eden Gardens in Calcutta today. Making a comeback after a gap of four years, Nimal C Padhi led Orissa in this match, replacing Ram Prakash Kapoor.

Odisha played the match with 10 players as Kapoor was absent hurt in both the innings and also did not bowl. As many as six Orissa players made their first-class debut in this match. They were: RC Patnaik, P Bhadrya, N Subba Rao, G Purshottam, ASN Murthy and stumper MV Rama Rao, who replaced Brajendra Kishore Das.

Orissa started the match on an encouraging note, restricting Bengal to 221. But the initial advantage was wasted as Orissa folded up for 70 and conceded a first-innings lead of 151 runs. Bengal then took an overall lead of 427 runs by declaring their second innings at 276 for four.

If that was not poor performance for Orissa, the worst happened when they were bundled out for 72 in the second essay. Among other notable performers of the Orissa team, opening batsman RC Patnaik was the top scorer with 29 runs in the first innings and N Subba Rao contributed an unbeaten 35 in the second.

SCOREBOARD (Orissa Ranji Match No 14):

BENGAL (1st innings): N Ghosh b ASN Murthy 37, SK Banerjee b DS Murthy 71, K Mitter b Swamy 27, A Mustafi lbw DS Murthy 32, J Mitter lbw DS Murthy 10, K Sillett c Swamy b Padhi 3, KM Daw lbw Swamy 4, +SK Khanna c ASN Murthy b DS Murthy 20, *PM Chatterjee c Swamy b DS Murthy 1, A Sen not out 6, KK Biswas b DS Murthy 0; Extras (7-b, 3-nb) 10
Total (all out, 87 overs) 221
Fall of wickets:
1-63, 2-109, 3-172, 4-175, 5-180, 6-194, 7-194, 8-196, 9-221, 10-221
Orissa bowling: Patnaik 4-3-3-0, Padhi 24-9-39-1, DS Murthy 22-7-54-6, Swamy 28-9-62-2, Purshottam 3-0-22-0, ASN Murthy 6-0-31-1.

ORISSA (1st innings): RC Patnaik lbw Biswas 29, P Bhadrya lbw Chatterjee 1, N Subba Rao b Chatterjee 0, G Purshottam b Sen 9, NN Swamy c K Mitter b Biswas 14, ASN Murthy b Chatterjee 11, DS Murthy c K Mitter b Biswas 1, *NC Padhi b Biswas 0, RK Rath not out 2, +MV Rama Rao b Biswas 0, RP Kapoor absent hurt; Extras 3
Total (all out, 39 overs) 70
Fall of wickets:
1-10, 2-10, 3-40, 4-46, 5-56, 6-68, 7-68, 8-70, 9-70
Bengal bowling: Chatterjee 11-4-13-3, Sen 12-5-25-1, Biswas 16-4-29-5.

BENGAL (2nd innings): N Ghosh b Patnaik 8, SK Banerjee lbw Swamy 73, K Mitter c & b DS Murthy 90, +SK Khanna c Subba Rao b Purshottam 26, J Mitter not out 26, K Sillett not out 33, A Mustafi did not bat, KM Daw did not bat, *PM Chatterjee did not bat, A Sen did not bat, KK Biswas did not bat; Extras 20
Total (4 wickets, declared, 77 overs) 276
Fall of wickets:
1-8, 2-151, 3-212, 4-219
Orissa bowling: Patnaik 12-2-38-1, Padhi 20-5-48-0, DS Murthy 14-2-57-1, Swamy 19-0-61-1, Purshottam 7-0-29-1, ASN Murthy 5-0-23-0.

ORISSA (2nd innings): RC Patnaik b Chatterjee 12, P Bhadrya run out 0, RK Rath c Mustafi b Sen 1, NN Swamy c Mustafi b Chatterjee 4, N Subba Rao not out 35, G Purshottam c Sillett b Biswas 0, ASN Murthy b Biswas 4, DS Murthy c Chatterjee b Biswas 5, *NC Padhi c Chatterjee b K Mitter 2, +MV Rama Rao b Biswas 3, RP Kapoor absent hurt; Extras 6
Total (all out, 33.2 overs) 72
Fall of wickets:
1-0, 2-7, 3-17, 4-20, 5-31, 6-37, 7-49, 8-52, 9-72
Bengal bowling: Chatterjee 5-3-2-2, Sen 4-0-5-1, Biswas 15.2-4-35-4, Sillett 6-0-12-0, K Mitter 3-1-12-1.

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