Cuttack: Suspense continued on day three of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group C encounter between Odisha and Jharkhand at the Barabati Stadium here, Friday as the visitors are yet to concede first innings lead, reaching 355 for nine at stumps. They are still 81 runs behind Odisha first innings total of 436.
Only Services and Haryana can ruin Odisha’s chances of qualifying for the knock out round. While Odisha have 35 points, Services and Haryana have 33 and 30 points respectively.
If Services beat Chhattisgarh, which is very unlikely at the moment considering the latters were 325/1 at stumps on day three leading by 106 runs, then they will reach 39 points at least. However, with the current scenario, Services already have first innings lead and if they managed to draw, then they will get to 36 points. If Services lose, then that’s game over for them.
Haryana, on the other hand, must win and expect Odisha and Services to lose, to qualify for knock outs. At stumps, Haryana were 103/5, 121 runs behind the target set by Jammu & Kashmir.
With the current scene, a draw is quite unlikely at the Barabati Stadium, and in that case Odisha must have to take first innings advantage (which will take them to 38 points) to have any chance of qualification to the next round.
At the iconic Barabati Stadium, Jharkhand resumed the play at an overnight 71/2. Kumar Suraj (107, 137b, 18×4, 1×6) lost his overnight partner Utkarsh Singh (15) through run out with the scoreboard reading 91/3.
Suraj was then joined by his skipper Saurabh Tiwary (21). The duo added 79 runs for the fourth wicket before Govind Poddar (1/80) got rid of the Suraj, who perished soon after completing his century.
After then wickets fell at regular intervals with Tiwary was dismissed by Debabrata Pradhan (2/85) before Suryakant Pradhan (3/86) getting the crucial wicket of Ishan Kishan (13). However, Virat Singh (83, 115b, 10×4, 3×6) held to one end, and along with Sahil Raj (30), he added 39 runs for the seventh wicket.
Virat, with small contributions from the lower order, took the visitors past 300-run mark before Suryakant shown the door to the dangerous-looking batsman. He was the ninth wicket fall with the scoreboard reading 306/9. However, No.10 Rahul Shukla (25 batting) and No.11 Ajay Yadav (21 batting) stunned the home team negating 13.3 remaining overs of the day, forging an unbeaten 49-run final wicket stand.
Brief scores: Odisha 436; Jharkhand 355/9 (Kumar Suraj 107, Virat Singh 83; Suryakant Pradhan 3/86, Basant Mohanty 2/52). Match to continue.
