Mullick helps Orissa get past Assam

Orissa beat Assam by 51 runs at the Eden Gardens in Calcutta earlier today. A few days ago the coach of the Bengal team Palash Nundy was saying that Orissa is the team of the future from the East. He couldn't have made a better statement. Debashish Mohanty and his team mates put up a thoroughly professional display to outplay Assam in the Ranji Trophy one-day encounter.

Batting first after being put in Orissa totalled 249 for seven in their 50 overs. They did so, after being reduced to 94 for the loss of four wickets in the 23rd over. A fifth wicket partnership of 123 runs in 139 balls runs between Pravanjan Mullick and P Jayachandra took the game away from Assam. Mullick who scored an unbeaten 83 in 119 balls showed a lot of common sense while batting. He had six fours, all drives in front of the wicket, on both sides. Jayachandra, who was dropped by wicket keeper Vinayak Samant when on 14 had 52 before holing out to Parag Das at mid wicket. Both, helped by some shoddy fielding from the Assam team ran well during their partnership. As for Assam, left-arm medium pacer Gautam Dutta and Javed Zaman looked impressive. However, the others did not back them up.

When Assam batted, Mohanty ripped through the top order. He had Parag das caught at short leg in his very first over. Then, Ganesh Kumar was caught behind by Gautam Gopal in Mohanty's third over as he tried to steer him. None of the Assam batsmen looked confident against him. Only Vinayak Samant managed to negotiate him with some degree of comfort. Samant was the top scorer for Assam with 84 in 115 balls with eight boundaries. The rest of the batsmen failed except for tailender Sunil Subramanium who made 27. The Assam innings folded for 199 in 46.4 overs.

Orissa, now have 4 points from two matches. Their last league match against Bengal on December 10 will finally decide whether they will qualify for the Wills Trophy or not.