Odisha's plucky eighth wicket pair of Lagnajit Samal and Basanta Mohanty managed to postpone the inevitable to the fourth and final day of the Elite Group ‘A' Ranji Trophy match at the DRIEMS Stadium here on Thursday. Following on after dismissed for 93 in the first innings, Odisha ended the third day at 163 for seven in reply to Mumbai's first innings total of 529 for eight declared.The host still needed 273 runs to avoid an innings defeat.Zaheer Khan, watched by the selector Surendra Bhave, acquitted well on the third day's play delivering 16 overs in three spells. The spell in Odisha's second innings in the final session showed Zaheer in full flight.
Zaheer, returning to active cricket after a few months, began the day with a six-over spell in Odisha's first innings on Thursday morning and scalped Dipak Behera and Basanta Mohanty to end with three for 31 from 12 overs.Forced to follow-on in the first session itself, Nayar reduced Odisha to 21 for two after the two openers, Bikas Pati and Natraj Behera easily negotiated Dhaval Kulkarni and Avishkar Salvi.Zaheer came onto the field in the second session after Mumbai had bowled four overs and both Niranjan Behera and Biplab Samantaray were well settled.
Best ball
And then Zaheer produced the day's best ball. An angled delivery from over the wicket pitched slightly short of length around the off-stump and climbed sharply on Samantaray. The batsman's hurried push landed in Jaffer's hands at the second slip.Thereafter Ramesh Powar picked up the next four wickets in a row. Haladhar Das, Niranjan Behera and Deepak Behera fell for the lofted shots and were taken by substitute fielder Nikhil Patil. Abhilash Mallick played Powar into the short-leg fielder's hands. The scores:Mumbai — 1st innings: 529 for eight decl. Odisha — 1st innings: B. Pati c Yadav b Zaheer 0, Natraj Behera b Kulkarni 0, Niranjan Behera b Salvi 26, B. Samantaray lbw b Kulkarni 10, H. Das b Kulkarni 1, A. Mallick b Kulkarni 0, D. Behera c Gurav b Zaheer 20, L. Samal lbw b Salvi 0, B. Mohanty c Nayar b Zaheer 23, S. Jena c Kulkarni b Powar 5, D. Singh (not out) 0, Extras (b-5, nb-3): 8; Total (in 41.2 overs): 93. Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-4, 3-26, 4-34, 5-35, 6-39, 7-43, 8-68, 9-86. Mumbai bowling: Zaheer 12-2-31-3, Kulkarni 15-3-37-4, Salvi 4-1-5-2, Powar 5.2-1-11-1, Abdulla 4-4-0-0, Yadav 1-0-4-0. Odisha — 2nd innings: B. Pati c Abdulla b Nayar 7, Natraj Behera c Gurav b Nayar 9, Niranjan Behera c sub (Patil) b Powar 30, B. Samantaray c Jaffer b Zaheer 18, H. Das c sub (Patil) b Powar 13, A. Mallick c Pawar b Powar 7, D. Behera c sub (Patil) b Powar 14, L. Samal (batting) 14, B. Mohanty (batting) 41, Extras (b-4, nb-5, w-1): 10; Total (for seven wkts. in 75 overs): 163. Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-21, 3-50, 4-79, 5-82, 6-97, 7-104. Mumbai bowling: Kulkarni 16-5-50-0, Salvi 13-6-25-0, Nayar 14-7-22-2, Zaheer 10-3-21-1, Powar 16-4-41-4, Abdulla 6-6-0-0.
