Orissa score emphatic victory over Jammu & Kashmir

Orissa dismissed the challenge from Jammu & Kashmir within the first four days of their scheduled five-day Ranji Trophy pre-quarter-final match played at the Barabati Stadium, Cuttack on Wednesday. Orissa, who completed an emphatic 420-run victory, will now take on Madhya Pradesh in the quarter-final to be played from March 22 to 26.

Resuming at 228/4, Orissa declared their second innings closed at 299/4. Sanjay Raul was unbeaten on 113 and Debashish Mohanty on 50. Required to make 650 runs in the fourth innings for a most improbable victory, J&K were bowled out for just 229 in 76.4 overs. Kavaljit Singh came good again in the second innings too, making 67 runs. V Taggar (33), D Mahajan (32) and Shashi Kumar (39) were the other batsmen to get amongst the runs.

Debashish Mohanty (3/21) and SK Satpathy (4/51) shared the bowling honours. Thus J&K's amazing run in the Ranji Trophy - which saw them qualifying for the knock out stage for the first time in 41 years - came to an end.