da bwin： An Orissa team sans Shiv Sunder Das and Debashis Mohanty reached theirfirst ever Ranji Trophy semifinal with a seven wicket triumph over hostsMadhya Pradesh at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior on Monday
Staff Reporter26-Mar-2001An Orissa team sans Shiv Sunder Das and Debashis Mohanty reached theirfirst ever Ranji Trophy semifinal with a seven wicket triumph over hostsMadhya Pradesh at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior on Monday.Chasing a target of 192 in a minimum of 75 overs, Orissa lost three quickwickets but an unbroken century stand between Rashmi Ranjan Parida andPravanjan Mullick helped them cruise to victory with more than ten overs tospare. In a semifinal encounter from April 5-9, Orissa will challenge fourtime Ranji Trophy champions Baroda for a place in the Ranji Trophy final.Madhya Pradesh began their second innings on the fifth morning at 153/6,leading by 111 with four wickets in hand. The unbroken seventh wicketpartnership between wicket keeper Ankit Sriwastava and skipper ChandrakantPandit swelled to 64 before the former gave seam bowler Mullick his thirdwicket. Pandit stuck around for a little longer, top scoring with precisely50 (58 balls, 6 fours), before being stumped by G Gopal off leg spinnerJagannath Das.Trailing by 42 on the first innings, Madhya Pradesh’s only hope lay inforcing an outright victory. Pandit closed shutters on 233/9 at the fall ofRajesh Chauhan to give his four man spin attack an opportunity to bowl outOrissa on a fifth day wicket. MP made their intentions clear, opening thebowling with off spinner Chauhan and leg spinner Narendra Hirwani.Orissa openers PK Das and Suresh Kumar adopted an ultra-cautious approachwhich failed to yield dividends as both fell in successive overs to Chauhanand Hirwani respectively, leaving the score at 26/2 in the 20th over. SoonOrissa slumped to 52/3 as skipper Sanjay Raul fell to Hirwani and at thatmoment their thoughts must have focused on saving the match rather thantaking up the gauntlet and winning outright.But Parida and Mullick, with contrasting half centuries, fashioned aremarkable 140 run stand in 33.1 overs which turned the course of thematch. Parida followed up his first innings 162 with a tenacious 64 (150balls, 9 fours). Mullick on the other hand made a positively exuberant 74in just 86 balls, slamming seven boundaries and two sixes. Pandit rang inthe bowling changes using off spinner Abbas Ali and leg spinner YogeshGolwalkar as well as belatedly bringing on his new ball bowlers HarvinderSodhi and Devender Bundela. But all his manipulation was to no avail asOrissa coasted home.