Odisha cruise to nine-wicket win

Odisha 307 (Pati 94, Yadav 5-61) and 109 for 1 (Rout 67*) beat Jharkhand 221 (Tiwary 67, Mohanty 5-60) and 194 (Pappu 61, Mohanty 6-88) by nine wickets
Scorecard

Odisha romped to a nine-wicket win by restricting Jharkhand to 194 in the second innings and chasing 109 with ease on the fourth day in Cuttack. Odisha medium-pacer Alok Chandra Sahoo took all four Jharkhand wickets in the morning and Odisha were helped by an unbeaten fifty from opener Girjia Rout during the chase.

Jharkhand started the day at 149 for 6 but Sahoo struck on the second ball of the day, dismissing Bhavik Thaker for 9. Six overs later, Sahoo sent a well-set Pappu Singh back to the pavilion for 61. Shahbaz Nadeem and Shankar Rao resisted with scores of 20 and 10 but both fell soon, giving Sahoo figures of 4 for 42.

Odisha were hardly bothered in their chase as only one wicket fell, when Varun Aaron had Vikas Pati caught for 11. Rout scored a brisk 67 and along with Niranjan Behera (27), took them home in 30 overs.

A spirited 72-run ninth-wicket stand between debutant Abrar Kazi and KP Appanna took Karnataka past Vidarbha's total in fading light and earned them three vital points for the first-innings lead. At 477 for 8 at one stage, Karnataka had appeared to fritter away the advantage their top order had given them, but Kazi and Appanna defended solidly first, then opened up towards the end to scamper towards Vidarbha's total. Two sixes, one by Kazi and the next one by Appanna, took the team ahead of Vidarbha.

The innings was, however, built by a solid KL Rahul, who shared important stands with Manish Pandey and Ganesh Satish. He scored 158 - his second first-class ton, both of which have come against Vidarbha - before playing a loose shot against an incoming Umesh Yadav delivery to be bowled. Umesh added another wicket to his tally, while offspinner Akshay Wakhare struck twice to reduce Karnataka from 474 for 5 to 477 for 8, before the ninth-wicket pair turned it in favour of Karnataka.

Gujarat, after a poor showing with the bat all through the game, finished on a high against Punjab in Mohali. They had begun the day on 33 for 3, after managing only 127 in the first innings, but now Samit Gohel and Rujul Bhatt took charge. The pair batted through the day, both getting to centuries - it was Gohel's maiden first-class ton - and added 210 runs in partnership. Play was called off, with the match ending in a draw, soon after they completed their hundreds.

While Punjab gained three points for the first-innings lead, Gujarat are still the table-toppers in Group A, four rounds into the league phase. They have 14 points from four games, while Punjab, with a game in hand, are at No. 3 with 10 points.

The Delhi team management's decision to play on a result-oriented Roshnara track was vindicated as they got their first six points of the season with a 105-run victory over Haryana. Chasing a stiff target of 376, Haryana were bowled out for 270 in 70 overs with the match ending exactly nine overs into the post lunch session. It was a much-needed win for Delhi, who now have nine points from four matches.

Ishant Sharma's return to first-class grind proved to be a fruitful one as he got 4 for 76 in the second innings to end with a match-haul of 9 for 105 in 37 overs. Debutant left-arm spinner Varun Sood also did his case no harm with second-innings figures of 4 for 49 from 15 overs.

Read the full report here.