Odisha-Saurashtra Ranji match ended in draw

Replying to Saurashtra`s massive 545, Odisha were 494 for seven when stumps were drawn on the final day. With Saurashtra failing to bowl out Odisha, both teams failed to get even a single point from the encounter.

The highlight of the Odisha innings was a career-best 209 by opener Nataraj Behera. Starting the day on 112, Behera completed his maiden double century in first-class cricket. Along with Abhilash Mallick, he added 90 runs for the fifth wicket before Mallick (64, 8x4) was caught by Sagar Jogiyani off Pratik Mehta with the scoreboard reading 336.

Behera added another 79 runs with Paresh Patel (48, 7x4) for the sixth wicket before being bowled by Mehta with the score on 415. Behera`s double century contained 27 hits to the fence and two hige sixes off 501 balls during his marathon 731 minutes stay at the crease.

Even as the visitors were smelling success with Behera`s exit, the Odisha middle-order frustrated the visitors with cautious batting. D R Behera and A K Sahoo contributed to the team total with 28 and 21 runs respectively with five hits each to the fence.

For Saurashtra P S Mehta was the most successful bowler with 2/12 delivering only six overs. Jaydev Unadkat bagged two wickets each giving away 82 runs while S M Maniar and Rabindra Jadeja accounted for one scalp each both giving away 110 runs.

Odisha will leave for Mohali for its next match aginst Punjab scheduled to begin on November 10.