Ranji Trophy: Orissa fight back to beat Assam

After conceding a first-innings lead of 147 runs, Orissa fought back in style to beat host Assam by five wickets on the last day of their three-day East Zone Ranji Trophy match at North East Frontier Railway Stadium in Guwahati today. This was 16th overall win in 110 Ranji Trophy matches for Orissa and 12th win in 33 matches against Assam. With this win, Orissa qualified for the quarterfinals.

Sourajit Mohapatra, Amiya Ray, Sushil Kumar Prasad and Devashish Mahanti played notable roles in the Orissa win. Opting to bat after winning the toss, Assam made a healthy total of 306, thanks to a half-century by Rajinder Singh. Sourajit Mohapatra was most successful Orissa bowler, capturing five wickets for 68 runs.

In reply, Orissa were bowled out for 159. Penalty of 40 runs imposed on Assam turned out to be the highest score for Orissa. But the visitors bounced back into the match by dismissing Assam for a paltry 91 in the second innings. Sushil Kumar led the fight-back, bagging five wickets for 28 runs. He was well supported by Mohapatra, who picked up three for 34. Mohapatra, thus, finished with a match haul of eight for 102.

Chasing a target of 249 for victory, Orissa rode on an unbeaten knock of 76 by Amiya Ray to romp home with five wickets intact. Two sizeable partnerships, involving Ray made the win possible for Orissa. He first compiled 82 runs for the fifth-wicket with Devashish Mahanti and then added 94 runs for the unfinished sixth wicket with Rajesh Singh. Mahanti and Singh contributed 49 and unbeaten 30 runs respectively.

SCORECARD (Orissa Match No 110):

ASSAM (1st innings): S Dutta c Bose b Mohapatra 40, M Bhagawati b Rajesh Singh 8, A Das c Rajesh Singh b Mohapatra 7, *RK Borah c Rajesh Singh b Mohapatra 34, Rajinder Singh lbw Agarwal 80, N Konwar c Saudagar b Mohapatra 3, S Srivastava c Das b Mohapatra 19, M Kakoti c Bose b Saudagar 15, SG Chakraborty run out 37, H Baruah not out 49, +J Roy lbw Kumar Prasad 0; Extras (b-8, lb-4, nb-1, w-1) 14
Total (all out, 91.2 overs) 306
Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-52, 3-71, 4-100, 5-118, 6-144, 7-191, 8-242, 9-295, 10-306
Orissa bowling: Mohapatra 31-10-68-5, Rajesh Singh 5-1-41-1, Agarwal 19-1-84-1, Kumar Prasad 18.2-5-38-1, Saudagar 9-1-31-1, Ray 9-1-30-0.

ORISSA (1st innings): Soumitra Chowdhury c Roy b Konwar 3, Sushil Kumar Prasad b Baruah 33, *Asjit Jaiprakasham c Roy b Kakoti 11, Devashish Mahanti c Roy b Kakoti 27, Sritam Das c Roy b Baruah 1, Amiya Ray c Roy b Kakoti 11, Rajesh Singh b Kakoti 0, +Pannalal Bose c Roy b Baruah 0, Sourajit Mohapatra c Borah b Baruah 10, Mahipal Saudagar not out 0, Pawan Agarwal lbw Konwar 3; Extras (b-4, lb-6, nb-7, w-3) 20, Penalties 40
Total (all out, 29.5 overs) 159
Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-55, 3-59, 4-63, 5-88, 6-88, 7-89, 8-108, 9-113, 10-119
Assam bowling: Baruah 11-0-48-4, Konwar 6.5-1-28-2, Kakoti 12-4-23-4.

ASSAM (2nd innings): S Dutta run out 26, M Bhagawati b Kumar Prasad 10, A Das b Kumar Prasad 1, *RK Borah c Das b Kumar Prasad 1, Rajinder Singh b Kumar Prasad 2, S Srivastava b Kumar Prasad 4, M Kakoti c Bose b Mohapatra 17, N Konwar run out 23, SG Chakraborty c Bose b Mohapatra 4, H Baruah c Bose b Mohapatra 1, +J Roy not out 1; Extras (lb-1) 1
Total (all out, 39.5 overs) 91
Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-32, 3-34, 4-36, 5-41, 6-45, 7-84, 8-85, 9-89, 10-91
Orissa bowling: Mohapatra 16.5-5-34-3, Agarwal 2-0-20-0, Kumar Prasad 16-4-28-5, Saudagar 2-0-4-0, Ray 3-0-4-0.

ORISSA (2nd innings): S Chowdhury c Roy b Baruah 9, S Kumar Prasad c Bhagawati b Rajinder Singh 29, *A Jaiprakasham lbw Rajinder Singh 27, D Mahanti c Das b Konwar 49, S Das c sub b Konwar 4, A Ray not out 76, Rajesh Singh not out 30; Extras (b-3, lb-8, nb-3, w-1) 15, Penalties 12
Did not bat: P Agarwal, M Saudagar, S Mohapatra, +P Bose
Total (5 wickets, 69 overs) 251
Fall of wickets: 1-34, 2-56, 3-68, 4-75, 5-157
Assam bowling: Baruah 19-4-60-1, Konwar 14-2-41-2, Kakoti 2-0-11-0, Rajinder Singh 12-0-33-2, Srivastava 14-1-52-0, Bhagawati 1-0-1-0, Borah 5-1-15-0, Dutta 2-1-11-0.