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Sandeep Pattnaik (X Photo) There were two mindsets on the field at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on Monday. Having lost out on a crucial first-innings lead, Jammu & Kashmir were desperate to return home with a positive result from their second Ranji Trophy Group A match this season. But hosts Odisha , who have already registered three points from their first essay, were just fighting for a draw on Day 4 of the fixture.
And at the end of the final day, it was the hosts who held fort and deprived the visitors of an outright win as J&K fell short by two wickets to garner any point and settled for a draw. The result meant that Odisha — having had to settle for a shared point with Tripura after a washout in their domestic season opener — climbed to the sixth spot on the eight-team list while J&K had to be content with a place on the second half of the Group A table on fifth. Resuming the day on 198/5, the visiting J&K were keen to put up a big score and at a fast pace to eke out an improbable victory on the final day.
Aided by Sahil Lotra at the other end, their fighter-in-chief in both innings, Abdul Samad , raced to his second century of the match. Samad added 38 runs to his overnight score of 70 in a hurry and stayed unbeaten on 108 as the visitors looked eager to go all out for a win declaring on their identical first-innings score of 270, but for seven wickets. It took Samad and his lower-order companions 24.
2 overs to add 75 runs and set Odisha a target of 272 to clinch all the points. Suryakant Pradhan was the most successful of the Odisha bowlers with three dismissals for 46 runs. However, already in the second session of the final day, Odisha were in no mood to go all out and played a defensive innings as the visiting bowlers put in a cumulative effort to dismiss them and win the match in less than two sessions.
Just the stats for Sandeep Pattnaik , Odisha’s highest scorer in the second innings, made evident their strategy as he stayed unbetaen on 55, playing 222 balls. It was the same for all eight Odisha batters — with skipper Govinda Poddar amassing the highest strike rate of 27.27 for his nine runs.
Four J&K bowlers claimed a wicket each as Odisha stood firm on 112/8 when stumps were called in their Ranji Trophy fixture. Brief scores: J&K 270 & 270/7 decl (A Samad 108 n.o.
, S Lotra 28; Pradhan 3-46). Odisha 272 & 112/8 (S Pattnaik 55 n.o.
, Mushtaq 2-38, Lotra 2-10, Nazir 2-8, Khajuria 2-15). Match drawn..
