Counterattacking Podder wins Odisha a low-scorer
A round-up of all the Ranji Trophy Group A matches on October 17, 2015
ESPNcricinfo staff
17-Oct-2015
Bengal's Manoj Tiwary ended the day on 51 not out • PTI
Odisha 88 (Krishna Das 7-21) and 142 for 2 (Podder 77*, Sarangi 29*) beat Assam 137 (Syed Mohammed 42* Tarjinder 27, Pradhan 5-27) and 92 (B Mohanty 5-24) by eight wickets
Scorecard
Scorecard
Govinda Podder smashed an unbeaten, run-a-ball 77 to lift Odisha to an eight-wicket win against Assam in their Group A match in Cuttack. In a low-scoring encounter in which both Assam and Odisha were bowled out for less than 100 in their first innings, Assam led by 141 at stumps on the second day with two wickets in hand, but Suryakant Pradhan wrapped up their innings with no further addition to the run-tally to end with figures of 5 for 27.
Arup Das and Pritam Das picked up a wicket each early in the chase, as Odisha lost both their openers with the score still on 31. However, two differently-paced innings - Anurag Sarangi's 101-ball 29 and Podder's counterattacking 77 - combined well to take Odisha past the finishing line.
Bengal 136 for 3 (Tiwary 51*, Eswaran 53) trail Rajasthan 198 (Saxena 66, Ojha 4-49) by 62 runs
Scorecard
Scorecard
Finally a full day's play was possible at Eden Gardens where Rajasthan were bowled out for 198 and Bengal also lost three early wickets but looked in a decent position to take first-innings lead on the fourth day, if the weather permits. They ended the day on 136 for 3, trailing by 62 runs, with captain Manoj Tiwary batting on 51.
Rajasthan added 58 runs to their overnight score, led by an unbeaten fifty from opener Vineet Saxena. Pragyan Ojha first dismissed Dishant Yagnik, and Bengal made sure Rajasthan's remaining batsmen could not go into double-digit scores. Offspinner Aamir Gani took two of those wickets and Ojha finished with 4 for 49 as Saxena was left on 66 not out off 271 balls.
Bengal were also led by an opener - Abhimanyu Easwaran - as the other top-order batsmen stuttered. Deepak Chahar removed Naved Ahmed for 7 and Sudip Chatterjee for 1, while Aniket Choudhary sent back Shreevats Goswami for 7, and Bengal were 48 for 3. Easwaran and Tiwary then struck fifties and steered Bengal to safety with an unbroken stand of 88 runs.
Delhi v Haryana - Delhi charge on with Manan six-for
Karnataka v Vidarbha - Aravind, Suchith give Karnataka first-innings lead