Ranji Trophy: Orissa go down fighting to Bengal

Bengal beat Orissa by three wickets on the last day of ther hard-fought three-day East Zone Ranji Trophy match at Eden Gardens in Calcutta today. This was overall 55th defeat in 109 Ranji Trophy matches for Orissa and 26th defeat in 36 matches against Bengal.

Put into bat by Bengal captain Sambaran Banerjee, Orissa rode on a half-century each by Soumitra Choudhury (60 off 191b, 8x4) and Amiya Ray (86 off 157b, 15x4) to compile a competitive total of 264. In reply, Bengal declared their first innings at 304 for seven to take a lead of 40 runs.

For Bengal, Ashok Malhotra scored a century, while Joydeep Mukherjee and Snehasish Ganguly hit a half-century each. Among Orissa bowlers, Rajesh Singh was most successful, bagging four wickets for 40 runs, while Sourajit Mohapatra chipped in with two for 87.

In the second inning, Orissa folded up for 201 with Sritam Das emerging top scorer with 63 runs. Chasing a victory target of 162, Bengal romped home, losing seven wickets in the process. Indu Bhusan Roy slammed 72 for Bengal, while Sourajit Mohapatra scalped four wickets for Orissa.

SCORECARD (Orissa Match No 109):

ORISSA (1st innings): Soumitra Chowdhury b Satyendra Singh 60 (191b, 8x4), Biswajit Mohanty b Satyendra Singh 37, *Asjit Jaiprakasham c Venkatraman b J Mukherjee 5, Devasish Mahanti c Arun Lal b Sensharma 21, Sritam Das c Malhotra b Bhattacharya 6, Amiya Ray c Banerjee b Sensharma 86 (157b, 15x4), Sushil Kumar Prasad b Sensharma 4, Rajesh Singh b D Mukherjee 15, +Pannalal Bose b Sensharma 18, Sourajit Mohapatra c Bhattacharya b Sensharma 1, Mahipal Saudagar not out 0; Extras (lb-2, nb-4, w-5) 11
Total (all out, 78.5 overs) 264
Fall of wickets: 1-48, 2-60, 3-86, 4-116, 5-158, 6-164, 7-208, 8-262, 9-264, 10-264
Bengal bowling: Sensharma 17.5-4-64-5, Satyendra Singh 19-7-57-2, D Mukherjee 12-1-51-1, J Mukherjee 9-1-36-1, Bhattacharya 20-4-49-1, Arun Lal 1-0-5-0.

BENGAL (1st innings): J Arun Lal c Jaiprakasham b Rajesh Singh 11, IB Roy c Mohanty b Rajesh Singh 10, R Venkatraman b Mohapatra 5, Joydeep Mukherjee c Bose b Saudagar 54, Ashok Malhotra c Ray b Rajesh Singh 117, Snehasish Ganguly b Mohapatra 86, A Bhattacharya c Saudagar b Rajesh Singh 8, *+S Banerjee not out 6, S Sensharma not out 0, Satyendra Singh DNB, D Mukherjee DNB; Extras (lb-5, nb-2) 7
Total (7 wickets, declared, 84 overs) 304
Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-21, 3-29, 4-126, 5-285, 6-285, 7-298
Orissa bowling: Mohapatra 25-1-87-2, Rajesh Singh 11-2-40-4, Kumar Prasad 23-3-65-0, Ray 6-1-31-0, Saudagar 18-1-61-1, Jaiprakasham 1-0-15-0.

ORISSA (2nd innings): S Chowdhury c Venkatraman b Sensharma 8, B Mohanty b Satyendra Singh 2, *A Jaiprakasham c Banerjee b Satyendra Singh 28, D Mahanti lbw Satyendra Singh 32, S Das    lbw Bhattacharya 63, A Ray b D Mukherjee 39, S Kumar Prasad c Venkatraman b Bhattacharya 0, Rajesh Singh c Banerjee b D Mukherjee 2, +P Bose c Banerjee b Satyendra Singh 6, S Mohapatra b Sensharma 3, M Saudagar not out 4; Extras (b-4, lb-6, nb-2, w-2) 14
Total (all out, 67.4 overs) 201
Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-11, 3-73, 4-106, 5-170, 6-170, 7-175, 8-191, 9-195, 10-201
Bengal bowling: Sensharma 13.4-2-50-2, Satyendra Singh 22-6-41-4, D Mukherjee 17-2-72-2, J Mukherjee 2-0-6-0, Bhattacharya 10-3-15-2, Ganguly 3-2-7-0.

BENGAL (2nd innings): IB Roy c Mohanty b Mohapatra 72, J Arun Lal b Mohapatra 13, R Venkatraman run out 27, A Malhotra c Mahanti b Mohapatra 15, J Mukherjee b Mohapatra 2, SC Ganguly c & b Ray 7, S Sensharma run out 3, A Bhattacharya not out 0, *+S Banerjee not out 11; Extras (b-1, lb-6, nb-2, w-3) 12
Total (7 wickets, 34.4 overs) 162
Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-77, 3-121, 4-135, 5-146, 6-150, 7-158
Orissa bowling: Mohapatra 17.4-1-65-4, Rajesh Singh 2-0-9-0, Kumar Prasad 13-0-70-0, Ray 2-0-11-1.