Ranji Trophy: Shahbaz Nadeem, Sunny Gupta wreck Odisha

Put into bat by Jharkhand skipper, Saurab Tiwary, Odisha was bundled out for 152. Jharkhand in reply was nine for no loss at stumps.

Shahbaz Nadeem picked up four wickets.

Two defiant partnerships for the first and last wickets which were interspersed with rapid fall of wickets saw Odisha hand over the advantage to Jharkhand on a platter at the end of the opening day’s play in the Ranji Trophy Group B match at the KCA-St.Xavier’s College ground here on Thursday.

>Scorecard

Put into bat rather surprisingly by Jharkhand skipper, Saurab Tiwary, Odisha was bundled out for 152. Jharkhand in reply was nine for no loss at stumps.

Jharkhand spinners Shahbaz Nadeem (4 for 31) and Sunny Gupta (3 for 56) profited from Odisha batsmen’s distant lack of application on a wicket which offered them generous bounce.

Openers Sandeep Pattanaik and Ranjit Singh were overcautious in the morning and runs came at a trickle. The duo added 46 runs off 28 overs before losing the plot. The slide began when Shahbaz got the ball to bounce and it took the edge of Ranjit Singh’s defensive bat and was snapped by wicketkeeper Sumit Kumar. Captain Govind Poddar (0) played an extravagant shot off a ball that bounced and was caught by wicketkeeper Sumit off Shahbaz Nadeem.

Nadeem with a direct hit from mid-on ran out Abhishek Yadav (0) and when Sumit caught Subransu Senapati down the leg side, Odisha had lost four wickets for just two runs and slid to 48 for four at lunch.

After lunch, Bilap Samantary and Pattanaik attacked Jharkhand spinners to add quick runs for the fifth wicket. Sunny Gupta bore the brunt of attack as Bilap smote him for two sixes. But, the bowler had the last laugh when he foxed Bilap with a quicker ball and trapped him plump in front. Pattanaik (43) left soon after as his attempted to clear the infield but it resulted in a tame catch to Sunny Gupta at covers. The rest of the Odisha batsmen weren’t patient enough and threw away their wickets to wild shots as the side slumped to 120 for 9. However, Basant Mohanty (17 not out) and Dhiraj Singh (8) frustrated Jharkhand bowlers by adding 32 runs for the last wicket. The duo consumed nearly 24 overs for adding those precious runs which forced Tiwary to reintroduce medium pacer Ajay Yadav into attack. Ajay trapped Dhiraj in front to end Odisha’s innings.

Earlier in the morning, umpire S.K. Tarapore, who was officiating his 100th first-class match, was felicitated by BCCI and KCA.