Bhubaneswar: Odisha suffered their second loss Thursday in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy cricket tournament as they fell 63 runs short of Delhi’s total despite a valiant fight from skipper Subhranshu Senapati (77, 77b, 8×4, 2×6) in Vadodara Thursday.
Chasing a target of 300 runs, Odisha lost opener Shantanu Mishra in the third over for a duck. Subhranshu Senapati and Sandeep Pattnaik (28) steadied the ship but once they were back in the hut, wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals to leave Odisha at 172/8 at one stage.
Although middle-order batsman Abhishek Raut (32 n o) and pacer Rajesh Mohanty (39 n o) stood firm trying to stage a miracle, but it wasn’t enough as Odisha finished at 236 for the loss of eight wickets in their quota of 50 overs.
For Delhi, their bowlers produced an economical display with Manan Sharma (3/40) and Nitish Rana (2/43) standing tall. Pawan Negi (1/38), Navdeep Saini (1/43) and Simarjeet Singh (1/33) chipped in with a wicket apiece.
Earlier, sent into bat first, Delhi rode on half centuries from skipper Dhruv Shorey (51, 53b, 4×4, 2×6), Nitish Rana (56, 45b, 5×4, 3×6) and Anuj Rawat (69, 88b, 4×4, 3×6) to post a challenging 299/6. Opener Hiten Dalal (45) missed a well-deserved half century while a late unbeaten surge from Lalit Yadav (46 n o) took Delhi near the 300-run mark.
Suryakant Pradhan (3/73) and Pappu Roy (2/27) bowled well for Odisha.
Brief scores: Delhi 299/6 (Anuj Rawat 69, Nitish Rana 56, Dhruv Shorey 51; Suryakant Pradhan 3/73, Pappu Roy 2/27) beat Odisha 236/8 (Subhranshu Senapati 77; Manan Sharma 3/40, Nitish Rana 2/43) by 63 runs.
PNN