Odisha had Gujarat by the collar but was compelled to relax its grip as Chirag Gandhi and Rush Kalaria combined for an unbeaten 126-run partnership on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium on Friday.
On a grassy pitch that infused life into the medium pacers, Gujarat, especially its skipper Parthiv Patel, saw a demon, and play had to be suspended for more than an hour to level the pitch with a heavy roller before lunch.
The Odisha bowlers, Deepak Behera in particular who accounted for the top three batsmen including the 1000-run man Priyank Panchal and Parthiv, were able to capitalise on the bounce to reduce Gujarat to 71 for six.
Yet, not having beaten Gujarat in the tournament in five meetings spread over the last 15 years, Odisha lacked the conviction to go for the jugular.
Full credit to the two batsmen who handled the attack that had so much variety. Kalaria was defiant as he hooked a six to first take the team past the 100 mark, and played solid thereafter, reaching his half century after Chirag had achieved the milestone with a more patient approach.
Chirag suffered two nasty blows towards the end of the day, as the shadows lengthened towards the pitch, but was courageous to stand up to the task. He has struck six fours in his 161-ball vigil for 62.
Even though it was bright, the umpires accepted the request of the batsmen and called off play at around 5.30 p.m.
Earlier in the morning, everything was fine till Parthiv got hurt on his left upper arm. The umpires promptly agreed to his contention that there was a spot in the pitch and referee Daniel Manohar endorsed their decision, after play had been peaceful for the first hour and a half.
Early lunch was taken and play resumed nearly after an hour and a half. Parthiv was not convincing and his agony ended when he edged medium pacer Basant Mohanty to wicket-keeper Saurabh Rawat.
Mohanty and Biplab Samantaray put Gujarat in a tricky situation before Chirag and Kalaria joined hands for a defiant performance.
The fate of the five-day match will largely depend on how the teams tackle the conditions on Saturday.
The scores:
Gujarat — 1st innings: Samit Gohil c Rawat b Behera 4, Priyank Panchal c Samantaray b Behera 2, Bhargav Merai c Pradhan b Behera 31, Parthiv Patel c Rawat b Mohanty 12, Manpreet Juneja lbw b Mohanty 7, Rujul Bhatt c Patnaik b Samantaray 6, Chirag Gandhi (batting) 62, Rush Kalaria (batting) 59; Extras (lb-4, nb-10): 14; Total (for six wkts. in 79 overs): 197.
Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-9, 3-42, 4-54, 5-68, 6-71.
Odisha bowling: Suryakant Pradhan 18-4-42-0, Deepak Behera 13-0-36-3, Basant Mohanty 16-3-48-2, Biplab Samantaray 13-2-33-1, Dhiraj Singh 17-5-27-0, Govinda Poddar 2-0-7-0.
Toss: Odisha .
