Sambalpur, Jan 6: Orissa pacers bowled a tight line and length on a pitch that offered them some help to restrict Vidarbha to 129 for the loss of four wickets at stumps on the second day of the Group B Ranji Trophy tie at the Veer Surendra Sai Stadium here Tuesday. The first day’s play had been washed out due to soggy field conditions and the match started two hours behind schedule on day two.
Basant Mohanty (2/29), Deepak Behera (1/40) and Biplab Samantray (1/29), all bowled well as the Vidarbha players struggled. Except for Ganesh Satish (62 batting, 166b, 9×4), none of the others could tackle the movement the pitch offered. Much was expected of S
Badrinath (13, 19b, 2×4). But the former Tamil Nadu batsman was castled by a beauty from Basant. The ball came back off the seam and sneaked between Badrinath’s bat and pad to hit the stump.
Last match centurion, Shalabh Shrivastva also struggled for 38 balls before Biplab ended his misery with an in-cutter. Earlier Orissa had won the toss and put the opposition in.
Skipper Abhilash Mallick stated after the game that Orissa would try and restrict the opposition below 200. “Today (Tuesday) we couldn’t make use of the early morning moisture as the game started late,” stated Abhilash. “Tomorrow (Wednesday) the pacers will get that help and will utilise it. We are determined to restrict them to below 200,” he added.
Vidarbha coach Paras Mhambrey stated that his team had the ability to defend a 250-plus total. “We also have the pacers to make use of this pitch,” stated Mhambrey. “If we get to around 250, then Orissa will also struggle,” he asserted.
Brief scores: Vidarbha 129 for four (Ganesh Satish 62 batting, Basant Mohanty 2/29) versus Orissa. Match to continue.
Other games of Group B
(At Lahli): Delhi 278 (Virender Sehwag 147; Mohit Sharma 4/46, Joginder Sharma 3/39) and seven for no loss; Haryana 188 (HJ Rana 80; Sunit Narwal 3/43, Varun Sood 3/20).
(At Jaipur): Rajasthan 433 (PI Sharma 140, PR Yadav 90); Punjab 140/5 (Gurkeerat Mann 70 batting; Pankaj Singh 3/56).
(At Rajkot): Maharashtra 519 (Ankeet Bawane 124, KR Makwana 5/120); Saurashtra 94/3 (Sheldon Jackson 57 batting).
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