New Delhi: It was always expected to be tough third day for Odisha batsmen against Delhi in their Ranji Trophy match at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium on Sunday, but then they showed enough resiliency to delay which looked like inevitable.
Odisha trailing Delhi by 188 in the second innings started the day at overnight score of 7 lost their opener Paresh Patel in the first over of the day. His wicket brought Govind Podder to the crease and along with opener Abhilash Mallick, he stitched a 51-run partnership for the second wicket. Mallick departed for 25, and Biplab Samantray joined Podder in the middle.
Podder showed intent from the first ball he played and put up resistance against the burly Delhi bowling attack. He found an able partner in form of Samantray. Both the batsmen played cautiously and did not allow Delhi any further success till the lunch.
Odisha went into lunch at a score of 121-2, and were trailing by 67 runs.
Both the batsmen frustrated the Delhi bowlers in the post lunch session, but finally their partnership came to an end after Sumit Narwal broke through the defence of Podder. Podder scored 85 off 171 deliveries laced with 15 fours. His wicket brought an end to an 84 runs partnership for the third wicket.
Samantray fell three runs short of his 50 after Mohit Sharma had him caught off Suyal’s bowling. He scored 47 off 163 deliveries including seven fours.
Odisha’s soring rate decreased and they lost two more wickets by the end of day’s play. They now go into the last day’s play on a score of 229-6, with a lead of 41 runs.
Nataraj Behera (35) and Deepak Behera (4) were the unbeaten batsmen.
Narwal was the pick of the bowler for Delhi on the penultimate day with a spell of 3-41. With just four wickets remaining it looks like Delhi will wrap up the proceedings soon on the final day.
By Indian Sports News Network