Nadeem, Kaushal inflict innings-defeat on Odisha

Jharkhand 348 (Kaushal 86*, Tiwary 78, Mohanty 3-56) beat Odisha 152 (Pattnaik 43, Nadeem 4-31, Sunny 3-56) and 103 (Kaushal 3-17, Nadeem 3-28) by an innings and 93 runs
Scorecard

On a day which saw 15 wickets fall, Odisha crumbled around Jharkhand's spinners to fold for 103 and lost the match by an innings and 93 runs in three days in Thumba. Jharkhand collected seven points to top the Group B table, displacing Karnataka, while Odisha were consigned to their first outright defeat of the season.

While the ball did not grip and spin viciously despite the puffs of dust, Odisha's batsmen struggled to come to terms with the slowness of the surface and the lack of bounce. Shahbaz Nadeem followed up his first-innings four-for with 3 for 28 to finish with a match haul of seven, and Kaushal Singh took 3 for 17.

Kaushal also came good with the bat earlier in the day: his unbeaten 86 took Jharkhand to 348 with a first-innings lead of 196. Kaushal was denied a second first-class century after Sunny Gupta retired hurt on on 18, having twisted his ankle while running between the wickets.

Jharkhand began with spin from both ends in Odisha's second innings with Nadeem and Kaushal sharing the new ball. Ranjit Singh and Sandeep Pattnaik put on an opening stand of 25 in 10.2 overs before Ranjit ran himself out, changing his mind after coming halfway down having tucked the ball to midwicket.

Five overs later, Odisha captain Govinda Poddar was caught behind trying to glance. Poddar stood his ground, but the umpire raised his finger.

Pattnaik and Subhranshu Senapati got together for a 20-run stand but Odisha lost six wickets for 19 runs. Both Senapati and Pattnaik were offered reprieves, but neither could capitalise, falling to the two spinners in consecutive overs. Senapati was caught off Nadeem while Pattnaik perished after shuffling back to a quick and flat one from Kaushal.

Biplab Samantray was caught brilliantly by Virat Singh at silly point for a duck off Nadeem, who by now was bowling slow through the air and getting the ball to dip, making Odisha's batsmen reach out.

Odisha slipped to 84 for 8 with the wicket of Suryakant Pradhan, who was caught off Kaushal trying to clear long-on. Deepak Behera and Dhiraj Singh pushed the score past 100 before falling within three balls of the 47th over.

The lack of bounce wasn't as severe when Jharkhand batted in the morning. They lost Nadeem off the third ball of the day after which Tiwary came out to resume his innings on 65 having retired hurt on the second day. Tiwary scored 13 more before he was bowled through the gate off a straight ball from Basant Mohanty.

Kaushal, who was unbeaten on 22 overnight, opened up and struck lusty blows once Gupta had retired hurt.

Kaushal added 30 more for the ninth wicket with Ajay Yadav, before the latter was trapped lbw by Dhiraj, although the batsman indicated an inside edge. That wicket left Kaushal stranded on 86 off 124 balls, which included eight fours and five sixes.