Medium pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Rush Kalaria infused life into the Gujarat ranks as they reduced Odisha to 184 for eight in the first innings of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium on Saturday.
Kalaria had played his part well as a batsman earlier with a fine knock of 73 and a record 154-run partnership for the seventh wicket with Chirag Gandhi (81) to take the team to 263, before Bumrah breathed fire with his lively bowling, the duo claiming six wickets between them.
A four-wicket haul by the 23-year-old Bumrah broke the back of Odisha. But a defiant 47 off 27 balls by the team’s frontline bowler Suryakant Pradhan, who struck five sixes, four of them in one over off left-arm spinner Hardik Patel, salvaged the day for Odisha.
Five-for for Mohanty
The team had done well to close the Gujarat innings, with the 30-year-old Basant Mohanty bagging five wickets, three of them this morning. It was the 16th time Mohanty was taking five wickets in an innings, and the first time this season.
The Gujarat innings was bolstered by Mehul Patel, who struck 20 runs off the first four balls of left-arm spinner Hardik Patel’s over, before pushing forward in defence on the fifth ball and getting trapped in front of the wicket.
It was attack that looked the best way forward on the pitch that offered a lot of life to those who persevered, but Odisha opener Sandeep Pattnaik went into a shell after a fluent knock of 43 and paid for it. He had helped the team recover with an 82-run partnership for the second wicket with Subhransu Senapati.
Deepak Behera, who had earlier bagged three wickets, was batting on 34, as Odisha hoped to make a fight of it against a team that it has not beaten in the tournament ever, so far.
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