Orissa struggling to avoid defeat

Orissa were fighting a grim battle to avoid defeat against Uttar Pradesh in their Super League tie at Kanpur today. At the end of the third day they were still 117 behind, having already lost three second innings wickets. Earlier UP were all out for 487 in 146.2 overs.

As expected, UP skipper Gyanendra Pandey completed his century in the morning session. Having lost his overnight partner Rizwan Shamshad for 115 (with their partnership worth 229) , he found another able ally in S Shukla with whom he put on 75 for the 5th wicket. Pandey was sixth out for 163 (290 balls, 22 fours, 1 six). Orissa off spinner Sanjay Satpathy toiled for 48.2 overs to finish with 6/147.

Shalabh Srivastava rocked Orissa by dismissing Mahapatra and Mullick off successive balls in his 3rd over (and the 6th of the innings). When SS Das followed soon, Orissa were down to 20/3. Sanjay Raul and Rashmi Parida then pulled off a rescue act with an unbroken 109 run stand off 30.2 overs. At stumps Raul was on 51 (88 balls, 8 fours) and Parida on 54 (103 balls, 8 fours).