Bhubaneswar: Orissa skipper Govind Poddar turned down the proposal of umpires C Ravikanthreddy and R Subramanian to call off the Ranji Trophy game between his side and Maharashtra when the offer came a couple of hours after play on the opening day, Tuesday. He did not heed to their request and reaped rich rewards Wednesday as Orissa deafeated Maharashtra by an innings and 118 runs at the Krishnagiri Stadium in Wayanad, Kerala. The win took Orissa to third position in the points table in Group B and increased their chances of qualifying for the knockout stage.
In reply to Orissa’s first innings score of 319, Maharshtra were bowled out for 94 and 107 as pacers Suryakant Pradhan, (7 for 70 in the match), Basant Mohanty (5 for 43), Deepak Behera (4 for 46) and Biplab Samantray (4 for 34) played havoc with the opposition batsman. No doubt, the pitch was not conducive to batting, but then on the same wicket Orissa had scored a 300-plus total and some resistance was expected from the Maharashtra batters. But none of them could offer any semblance of resistance and in the first innings of Maharashtra ‘Mr Extras’ with 19 emerged top scorer.
In the recent past, Orissa cricket has seen a huge leap of improvement with the side obtaining the first innings lead against table-toppers Karnataka and followed by the defeat of former Ranji Trophy champions Maharashtra. This by far has been one of the best seasons for the senior side in the recent past and the selectors must be lauded for the way they have pinned their faith on a blend of youth and experience.
Basant, Deepak, Suryakant – all maintained discipline on a pitch of variable bounce and did not experiment too much. They let the pitch do all the talking and after a couple of Maharashtra batsmen were hit on the gloves, a fear psychosis gripped their batsmen and they surrendered meekly. Except for VV More (29) in the second innings, none were willing to battle it out in the middle. And when the top three pacers got tired, in stepped Biplab, to run through the opposition middle and lower-order.
Orissa’s next and final league game will be against Jharkhand at Madurai and not at Chennai. The team will not be returning here, but will travel straight to the match venue as coach Debasis Mohanty wants his wards to hit the nets at the earliest. With the prospects of a knockout position looming large, he doesn’t want the players to relax and the cricketers will again be at the nets Friday onwards.
But then who would like to give up on the chance of qualifying for the knockouts.
Brief scores
Orissa 319 beat Maharashtra 94 (Suryakant Pradhan 4-34, Deepak Behera 3-16, Basant Mohanty 3-20) and 107 (Biplab Samantray 4-34, Suryakant Pradhan 3-36, Basant Mohanty 2-23, Deepak Behera 1-10) by an innings and 118 runs.
Other Group-B matches
(At Vizianagaram): Jharkhand 316 (Ishank Jaggi 93, Saurabh Tiwary 88; Krishna Das 4-65); Assam 126 (Rahul Shukla 4-48).
(At Chennai): Vidarbha 183 (Shalabh Srivastava 62; Sumit Narwal 4-38); Delhi 250 for 8 (Manan Sharma 82 batting; Rajneesh Gurbani 4-76).
(At Patiala): Karnataka 200 (Manish Pandey 75; Vandit Jivrajani 3-41); Saurashtra 297 for 6 (Prerak Mankad 100 batting, Snell Patel 87; R Vinay Kumar 4-43).
All matches to continue.
Maiden win for Orissa U-19 colts
Cuttack: Preet K Singh Chohan (7-28) wreaked havoc with the ball which helped Orissa script an innings and 48 runs victory over Chhattisgarh in their U-19 Cooch Behar Trophy match at the Ravenshaw University Ground here, Wednesday. In the first innings he had bagged two wickets to return with match figures of nine for 64. This incidentally was Orissa’s first victory in the tournament.
The visitors were bowled out for 102 in their second essay after Orissa took a handsome 150-run first innings lead. The only opposition batsman to offer some resistance to Chohan was skipper PM Yadav (40, 38b, 8×4). His dismissal reduced the visitors to 53 for six. Ashish Pandey (25 n o, 96b, 4×4) batted well to take Chhattisgarh past the 100-run mark.
Apart from Chohan, Sanjay Das picked two wickets while Umesh Kumar Yadav got the other batsman.
The OCA announced cash rewards for the U-19 boys after the match. Cash prizes of `25,000 each for centurion Amrit Khatu bowler Chohan were declared while each member of the victorious team were awarded `5,000.
Brief scores
Chhattisgarh 147 and 102 (PM Yadav 40; Preet K Singh Chohan 7/28) lost to Orissa 297 by an innings and 48 runs.
