Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Nov 7: Govind Poddar 153, the rest 79… that aptly describes the sordid tale of Orissa batting on the first day of their Ranji Trophy Group A encounter against Karnataka at Mysore, Saturday. Out of that 79, another 40 were scored by Pratik Das, so the total contribution of the other eight batters were a paltry 39 runs. Orissa were dismissed for 232 and in reply Karnataka were 16 without loss when stumps were called at the SDNRW Ground.
It was not pace that did the damage for the hosts. On the other hand, spinners Shreyas Gopal (4/75) and Jagadeesha Suchith (3/56) spun a web around the Orissa batsmen and plotted their downfall. After the initial breakthroughs by medium pacers R Vinay Kumar and Stuart Binny (both 1/23), it was the Karnataka spinners that took control over the proceedings. The one man they couldn’t dominate was Govind.
Coming into bat in the fourth ball of the innings with Natraj Behera back in the hut, Govind batted brilliantly to notch up his third Ranji Trophy ton this season. His innings lasted 230 balls and was laced with 15 boundaries and one hit over the ropes. Had the others been a bit more supportive, Orissa could have well ended the day on a better note. But that was not to be. The scores of the other batsmen, if combined together appeared like a cell number – Natraj (0), Rajesh Dhupar (15), Anurag Sarangi (1), Ranjit Singh (6), Biplab Samantray (10), Suryakant Pradhan (2), Basant Mohanty (0), Amit Das (0 n o) and Dhiraj Singh (1).
The only time that Orissa looked like wresting control of the game was during the 93-run partnership between Govind and Pratik. But with the dismissal of the latter, the rest collapsed in a heap. Govind was the ninth man out, going for a slog with the score on 231.
Other Group-A matches
(At Delhi): Maharashtra 80 (H Khadiwale 21; N Saini 6/32); Delhi 157/4 (D Shorey 54 batting, N Rana 59; S Mundhe 2/48). Match to continue.
(At Kolkata): Bengal 217/7 (A Easwaran 58, S Mondal 56; A Wakhare 4/40) vs Vidarbha. Match to continue.
(At Rohtak ): Haryana 140/7 ( H Rana 56, R Sharma 42 batting; K Das 4/44, D Goswami 3/37) vs Assam. Match to continue.
