Orissa takes day's honours, match poised for close finish

By Our Sports Reporter

GWALIOR, MARCH 25. Orissa recovered from an early morning collapse and then survived a tension-filled three hours of play as its ninth wicket pair of Gautam Gopal and Jagannath Das played their hearts out in getting the vital first innings lead, on the fourth day of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match against Madhya Pradesh at the Captain Roop Singh stadium here on Sunday.

It should be interesting when Madhya Pradesh tries to make a match of it on the last day, on a deteriorating pitch. To that end, it has to first stretch its lead from 111 to a fighting figure, with its remaining four wickets.

Replying to Madhya Pradesh's first innings total of 437, a fighting Orissa made 479 for a lead of 42 runs and then reduced the home team to 153 for six at stumps. For Orissa, the fort is yet to be conquered as the equation at the end of the day has left the match evenly balanced.

The winner of this match will meet Baroda in Baroda in the semifinal from April 5 to 9. If Orissa is through to the semifinals, it would be a first time meeting with Baroda, which defeated Tamil Nadu by 160 runs on Sunday.

Having conceded the first innings lead to Orissa and seeing the semifinal berth slipping away, Madhya Pradesh went all out to force a result. The home team's plan would be to pile up as many runs in the morning and then put pressure on Orissa and hope for a miracle from its veteran spinners.

The veterans, Narendra Hirwani (three for 121) and Rajesh Chauhan who failed to pick any wicket giving 69 runs, were however, unsuccessful on Sunday as Orissa showed great patience in crossing the first hurdle. The overnight batsmen, Rashmi Ranjan Parida and P. Jayachandra were out cheaply in the morning, both adjudged leg before wicket to Harvinder Singh Sodhi and J. P. Yadav respectively. Parida was out for 162 on the last ball of the day's second over before Yadav struck two quick blows. First he bowled R. R. Das (7), uprooting the middle stump, and on the fourth ball of the same over trapped Jayachandra plumb in front of the wicket, leaving Orissa on 386 for eight. The team had slipped from a position of strength at 372 for five.

Wicket-keeper batsman Gautam Gopal, who has played a season for Rajasthan before signing up with Orissa in the 1995-96 season, controlled the innings with Jagannath Das giving him good support. Gopal batted superbly, despite the two former internationals being pressed from both the ends as the lunch was taken at 416 for eight.

The three quick wickets early in the morning had poured life into the sagging spirits of Madhya Pradesh, but gutsy batting by Gopal, who remained unbeaten on 63, and Jagannath Das (23) took Orissa past the target. Both batted for more than one and a half hour after lunch before Gopal hit a boundary off Chauhan to take Orissa past Madhya Pradesh's total. Once the tension was off, Gopal batted freely and lofted a six on the next ball.

Madhya Pradesh started its second innings on a positive note as Amay Khurasiya (18), promoted as opener, and Naman Ojha (10) added quick runs for a 31-run first wicket partnership. Pravanjan Mullick (two for 29) broke the deadlock when he had Khurasiya leg before wicket. Ojha and Devender Bundela (14) were out to irresponsible shots before Abbas Ali (37) and J. P. Yadav (46) added 81 runs for the fourth wicket to save Madhya Pradesh the blushes.

The scores:

Madhya Pradesh-1st innings: 437

Orissa-1st innings: Suresh Kumar c Chauhan b Hirwani 35, Pradip Das lbw b Sodhi 10, Rashmi Ranjan Parida lbw b Sodhi 162, Sanjay Satpathy c Chauhan b Hirwani 0, Sanjay Raul lbw b J. P. Yadav 40, Pravanjan Mullick st. Srivastava b Golwalkar 51, P. Jayachandra lbw b J. P. Yadav 40, R. R. Das b J. P. Yadav 7, Gautam Gopal (not out) 63, Jagannath Das c and b Hirwani 23, Ajay Barick lbw b Golwalkar 0, Extras (b- 11, lb-10, nb-23, w-4) 48, Total: 479.

Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-102, 3-103, 4- 220, 5-310, 6-372, 7-385, 8-386, 9-468.

Madhya Pradesh bowling: Harvinder Singh Sodhi 27-2-70-2, Devender Bundela 11-1-28-0, J. P. Yadav 42-9-112-3, Yogesh Golwalkar 16-3- 52-2, Rajesh Chauhan 29-6-69-0, Narendra Hirwani 51-15-121-3, Abbas Ali 1-0-6-0.

Madhya Pradesh-2nd innings: Amay Khurasiya lbw b Mullick 18, Naman Ojha c J. Das b Mullick 10, Devender Bundela c Raul b Barick 14, Abbas Ali lbw b Raul 37, J. P. Yadav b Pradip Das 46, Harvinder Singh Sodhi c Mullick b Raul 4, Ankit Srivastava (batting) 6, Chandrakant Pandit (batting) 5, Extras (b-2, lb-3, nb-2, w-6) 13, Total (for six wickets) 153.

Fall of wickets: 1-31, 2-42, 3-51, 4- 132, 5-140, 6-140.

Orissa bowling: Ajay Barick 10-2-45-1, Pravanjan Mullick 8-1-29- 2, Sanjay Satpathy 8-0-31-0, Jagannath Das 4-0-15-0, Sanjay Raul 7-0-17-2, Pradip Das 4-0-11-1.

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