Odisha’s domestic debacle continued as they suffered a four-wicket loss against lower-ranked Uttarakhand in an Elite Group D match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy cricket tournament at Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai on Saturday.
Put into bat first, Odisha were skittled out for a paltry 178 in 44.2 overs. Barring Subhranshu Senapati (60, 76b, 8x4, 1x6) and Anshuman Rath (51, 95b, 4x4), no other batsmen could impress. Rakesh Pattnaik (28, 34b, 1x4, 2x6) got a good start, but could not convert it to something substantial. Others just threw away their wickets. Himanshu Bisht (4/26) was the pick of the bowlers for Uttarakhand. He was ably supported by Rajan Kumar (3/24).
In reply, Uttarakhand lost early wickets and were reduced for 27/4. However, an effective partnership between Dikshanshu Negi (80, 111b, 11x4) and Swapnil Singh (48, 66b, 7x4) steadied their ship. Vaibhav Bhatt (27, 52b, 1x4, 1x6) also played a useful knock lower down the order to help their team reach the target in 42 overs for the loss of six wickets.
For Odisha, Rajesh Mohanty (2/36) and Debabrata Pradhan (2/20) started well, but other bowlers lacked penetration.