Post News Network
Cuttack, Oct 15: Fifteen wickets fell on the opening day of the Group A Ranji Trophy tie between Orissa and Assam here Thursday at the Barabati Stadium. Pace spearhead Basant Mohanty (5/24) bowled brilliantly as the hosts skittled out Assam for 92, but then found themselves in a precarious condition at 52 for five as Krishna Das (4/5) also wreaked havoc. Orissa will now have to depend on the skills of Anaurag Sarangi (seven batting) and Abhilash Mallick (four batting) if they are to salvage anything from the game.
The policy of playing on a green top in their endeavour to snatch an outright win may backfire for Orissa as they will have to bat in the fourth innings of the game where an outright decision looks imminent. So unless, they have a handy first innings lead, Orissa will find it very tough to run down the target.
Earlier put into bat, the Gokul Sharma-led Assam saw two ducks in their innings as Amit Verma (20, 66b, 3×4) top-scored. Mohanty’s fifer was also backed up by Suryakant Pradhan (2/33) and Alok Chandra Sahoo (2/18), who bagged two wickets apiece.
Brief scores: Assam 92 (Amit Verma 20; Basant Mohanty 5/24); Orissa 52/5 (Natraj Behera 23; Krishna Das 4/5) Match to continue.
Other Group A games
(At Delhi): Haryana 195 (Jayant Yadav 41, Manan Sharma 5/57); Delhi 22/0. Match to continue.
(At Bangalore): Karnataka 298/6 (Manish Pandey 104, Karun Nair 58); Ravikumar Thakur 2/35) Match to continue.
(At Kolkata): Rajasthan 102/3 (Ashok Menaria 40; Pragyan Ojha 2/24). Match to continue.
