Thiruvananthapuram: Shahbaz Nadeem (4/31) and Sunny Gupta (3/56) spun a web around the Orissa batsmen and bowled them out for 152 in their first innings of the Ranji Trophy Group-B encounter at the St. Xavier’s College Ground, here, Thursday.
Put into bat first, Orissa started well with openers Ranjit Singh (20) and Sandeep Patnaik (43) putting on 41. However, once Ranjit was dismissed by Nadeem, wickets fell in a heap, as skipper Govind Poddar, Abhishek Yadav and Subhranshu Senapati departed without disturbing the scorer.
Biplab Samantray (19), Saurabh Rawat (11), Basant Mohanty (17) and Suryakant Pradhan (12) also played irresponsible shots to get out after getting their eye in.
Both Nadeem and Gupta bowled in tandem and maintained a very good line and length to trouble the Orissa batters. Ajay Yadav (1/20) and Vikash Singh (1/21) also chipped in with one wicket each.
In reply Jharkhand were nine without loss at stumps with Anand Singh (four batting) and Sumit Kumar (five batting) occupying the crease.
Both the teams from Group B– Jharkhand with 32 points from seven matches and Orissa with 22 points from as many matches have already qualified for the quarterfinals. The last league match will ensure which team top the group.
Brief scores: Orissa 152 (Sandeep Patnaik 43; Shahbaz Nadeem 4/31, Sunny Gupta 3/56); Jharkhand 9/0. Match to
continue.
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