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Tuesday, Nov 27, 2007
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Andhra wins

Special Correspondent

CUTTACK: Andhra registered its first victory in the ongoing Ranji Trophy Super League getting the better of Orissa by 102 runs on the fourth and final day at the Barabati Stadium here on Monday. The win enabled Andhra to earn five points to take its tally to nine from three games.

Orissa was bowled out for 224 at the fag end of the day with 3.5 over remaining with Debasis Mohanty playing a defiant innings.

Chasing a target of 327 for an improbable win, Orissa had knocked off 32 runs without loss at the end of the third day itself. On the final day, Orissa needed 295 to win with 10 wickets in hand or to play out the day. The host opted for the second option on a slow wicket where the bounce was uneven.

Orissa batsmen went into a defensive mode which allowed Andhra to be on top throughout the day. Orissa expected a lot from its top order batsmen especially, the experienced Siba Sundar Das but he did not last long. He was drawn out by left-arm spinner G. Shankara Rao and was stumped for 27.

To the exception of vice-captain Niranjan Behera, the other batsman let the team down with poor stroke selection.

Victory push

Mediumpacer D. Kalyankrishna, however, produced a fine in-cutter to catch Behera leg before for a well made 66 (206m, 174b, 8x4). The departure of P. Jayachandra before tea (172/7) gave Andhra the needed boost to push for a victory. Rashmi Ranjan Das and Mohanty added 38 run for the eighth wicket and Mohanty. In the company of No. 10 Sukanta Khatua added a further 37. At that stage runs did not matter to Orissa but time and overs did.

The way Mohanty protected Khatua for long and also pelted the ball to all parts of the ground for 46 runs (94m, 86b, 7x4, 1x6) should have been a good lesson to the frontline batsmen of the side. The last pair held on for 5.1 overs without scoring a run. The win came just when Andhra began to give up hopes as a Shankara Rao straighter one shot through to bowl Khatua.

The scores:

Andhra — 1st innings: 179.

Orissa — 1st innings: 140.

Andhra — 2nd innings: 287 for nine decl.

Orissa — 2nd innings: B.S. Pati lbw b Suresh 10, S.S. Das st Prasad b G.S. Rao 27, N. Behera lbw b Kalyankrishna 66, P. Mullick c Pradeep b Kalyankrishna 6, S. Biswal c & b Watekar 7, H. Das (run out) 2, P. Jayachandra b Kalyankrishna 18, R.R. Das c Prasad b G.S. Rao 18, D. Mohanty (run out) 46, S. Khatua b G.S. Rao 5, P. Das (not out) 0; Extras (b-9, lb-10): 19. Total (in 99.1 overs): 224.

Fall of wickets: 1-36, 2-61, 3-84, 4-101, 5-111, 6-144, 7-149, 8-187, 9-224.

Andhra bowling: Kalyankrishna 15-6-22-3, Vijay Kumar 4-1-14-0, G. Shankara Rao 25.1-8-54-3, M. Suresh 17-10-23-1, Y. G. Rao 2-0-12-0, Md. Faiq 19-4-43-0, H. Watekar 15-4-33-1, A.S.K. Varma 2-1-4-0.

Other results: Super league: Saurashtra 307 and 253 for three decl. beat Rajasthan 172 and 188 in 65.2 overs (R.V. Dhurv four for 60), at Jaipur. Pts: Saurashtra 5, Rajasthan 0.

Mumbai 166 and 471 for nine decl. drew with Delhi 251 and 252 for three in 96 overs (A. Chopra 81, G. Gambhir 137 not out), in Mumbai. Pts: Del 3, Mumbai 1.

Punjab 381 and 351 for nine in 111 overs (R. Inder 62, R.S. Ricky 111 not out, Charanjit Singh 64, Piyush Chawla four for 75) drew with U.P. 375 and 230 for five in 51 overs (T.M. Srivastava 66, Mohd. Kaif 71), at Chandigarh. Pts: Punjab 3, U.P. 1.

Plate league: Assam 198 and 152 beat Kerala 85 and 233 in 126 overs (P.R. Prem 53, P. Prashanth 83, B. Baruah four for 13), at Silchar. Pts: Assam 5, Ker 1.

Jharkhand 105 and 403 beat Jammu & Kashmir 135 and 125 in 58.4 overs (A. Bhatt 43, S.S. Rao four for 32, Santosh Lal four for 48), at Jammu. Pts: Jharkhand 5, J & K 0.

Madhya Pradesh 475 and 217 for four decl in 43 overs (N.V. Ojha 93, J.S. Saxena 58) drew with Goa 293 and 217 for five in 74 overs (S.A. Asnodkar 90), at Margao. Pts: MP 3, Goa 1.

Haryana 193 and 106 in 53.3 overs (Kulamani Parida four for 36) lost to Railways 385 for nine decl., at Rohtak. Pts: Railways 6, Haryana 0.

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