Orissa secured the first innings lead after a grim tussle and thenbowled their way into a winning position at stumps on the fourth dayof their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Madhya Pradesh at theCaptain Roop Singh stadium in Gwalior on Sunday
Staff Reporter25-Mar-2001Orissa secured the first innings lead after a grim tussle and thenbowled their way into a winning position at stumps on the fourth dayof their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Madhya Pradesh at theCaptain Roop Singh stadium in Gwalior on Sunday. After gaining afirst innings lead of 42 runs, Orissa dismissed six MP batsmen for153 by close of play.The keen duel for the lead was the highlight of the penultimate day’splay. Orissa seemed to be better placed to take the lead when theyresumed in the morning, having made 369 for five in reply to MP’s 437.But they suffered an early blow when they lost Rashmi Ranjan Paridaearly. Resuming on 159, Parida was leg before to HS Sodhi for 162. Ina stay of 505 minutes at the crease, Parida faced 372 balls and hit 19of them past the ropes. Then in one over Jai P Yadav put MP in thefavourites circle by dismissing both P Jai Chandra (40) and RR Das(7). At this stage Orissa were 386 for eight, still 51 runs behind theMP first innings total.Wicketkeeper Gautam Gopal and Jagannath Das came together and theyproceeded to bring Orissa back in the game with some purposefulbatting. Amidst a lot of tension and excitement, they took Orissa pastthe MP total. Finally, after the two had added 82 runs for the ninthwicket off 36.4 overs, Das gave former India leg spinner NarendraHirwani a return catch. Das batted 2-1/2 hours, faced 113 balls andhit two fours. The innings did not last long thereafter but Gopalremained unbeaten with 63. He batted 155 minutes, faced 123 balls andhit four boundaries and two sixes. Hirwani and Yadav finished withthree wickets for 121 and 112 runs respectively.A dispirited MP side put up a poor show in their second innings. Theylost three wickets for 51 before a fourth wicket partnership of 81runs off 17.2 overs between Abbas Ali (37) and Jai P Yadav (46) pulledtheir total into the realms of respectibility. However towards theend, MP lost three quick wickets and at close of play, were ahead byonly 111 runs with four wickets in hand.