Published: Oct 16, 2015, 08:30 AM (IST)
Edited: Aug 31, 2016, 02:55 PM (IST)
Hello and welcome to CricketCountry’s live coverage of Day 2 of the Group A game of Ranji Trophy 2015-16 between Odisha and Assam, live from Cuttack. Day One has provided some spectacular bowling performances from bowlers of either side, and if that is anything to go by, we have another outrageously low-scoring day to look forward to. Odisha, after bowling out Assam for a paltry 92, are only 40 behind with 5 wickets in hand, but given that the day has seen 15 wickets go down for the cost of 144 runs in close to 85 overs, the difference is more than it meets the eye. Anurag Sarangi (7) and Abhilash Mallick (4) are at the crease at stumps. READ: Full coverage, Ranji Trophy 2015-16 here
Things went wrong for Assam almost immediately after Samantray put them in, with the experienced Basant Mohanty and the young Suryakant Pradhan reducing them to 5 for 2. They recovered somewhat to 27 for 2 before Alok Sahoo came to the fray. Mohanty ripped through the middle-order, clean bowling the trio of Arun Karthik (who had two hundreds in the last two matches), Syed Mohammad, and Swarupam Purakayastha. Assam were eventually bowled out for 92 in 52.4 overs, Amit Verma top-scoring with 20. Mohanty picked up his five-for (he finished with 14.4-6-24-5) when he bowled Arup Das. READ: Ranji Trophy 2015-16: Basant Mohanty’s 5-wicket haul bundles Assam for 92 against Odisha
If Assam had scored at 1.74 an over, Odisha was even slower, meandering at 1.62. Surprisingly, this includes an onslaught at the top by Natraj Behera, who raced to 23 in 18 balls with 5 fours before becoming one of Krishna Das’ four wickets. If one takes Behera’s innings away, the others managed 24 from 175 balls, scoring at 0.82 an over. Sarangi meandered to 7 off 86 balls, but he survived the day to tell the tale.
Krishna, who had taken 10 for 55 to rout Rajasthan by an innings the previous match, finished the day with 10-8-5-4. An interesting aspect of the Assam bowling attack is the fact that Arup, Krishna, Pallav, and Pritam all share the surname Das. This is, of course, because their spinner Syed Mohammad has not bowled. All in all, a riveting (and, in all probability, low-scoring) day awaits us.
Live cricket scores Assam 137/8 | Overs 74| Batting: Syed Mohammed 42(158), Arup Das 4(32): Assam are 137 for eight by the end of second day. Syed Mohammed is eight runs short of his century. Odhisha would be hoping to bowl out Assam tomorrow morning for under 150. Match is in balance and can go either way, it has been a low scoring encounter so far.
Live cricket scores Assam 109/8 | Overs 60.1| Batting: Syed Mohammed 20(106), Arup Das 0(5): Assam lose two more wickets— Sarupam Purkayastha and Pritam Das. Assam bowlers will have to bowl exceedingly well if they want to win this low scoring match. Syed Mohammed is on the crease and is batting extremely slow at a strike rate of under 20.
OUT! Sarupam Purkayastha run out Alok Sahoo 10(29), Pritam Das c Dhuper b Basant Mohanty 5(14)
Live cricket scores Assam 100/6 | Overs 52| Batting: Syed Mohammed 18(83), Sarupam Purkayastha 9(16): Assam lose their sixth wicket Tarjinder Singh. Tarjinder made a patient 27. The ball hit his pads and the point of impact was in line with the stumps, hence the umpire declared him out leg-before-wicket. Syed Mohammed and Sarupam Purkayastha are on the crease now. Assam are leading by 104 runs.
OUT! Tarjinder Singh lbw Basant Mohanty 27(131)
Live cricket scores Assam 67/5 | Overs 33.3| Batting: Syed Mohammed 5(26), Tarjinder Singh 23(92): Assam lose Arun Karthick for 16 runs. Assam are leading by 71 runs as of now. Let’s see if Odhisha is able to bowl out Assam for under 100 runs. Tarjinder Singh is their only recognised batter with them at the moment. He needs support from Syed Mohammed. Tarjinder should also try playing more scoring shots from now onwards as their tail may not survive for long.
OUT! KB Arun Kathick c Rajesh Dhuper b Suryakant Pradhan 16(33)
Live cricket scores Assam 53/4 | Overs 22.5| Batting: KB Arun Kathick 14(25), Tarjinder Singh 17(61): Assam have reached 53 but have lost four important wickets. They lead by 57 runs as of now. Let’s see if Assam can reach 200 although it is difficult since Odhisha bowlers are bowling pretty well. Suryakant Pradhan and Alok Sahoo in particular have been instrumental in reducing Assam to 53 for four.
Live cricket scores Assam 44/4 | Overs 18| Batting: KB Arun Kathick 8(16), Tarjinder Singh 14(43): Assam lose their fourth wicket in the form of Pallav Kumar Das, he gets out on 21. Two new batters— Arun Kathick and Tarjinder Singh are in the middle now. They are batting defensively. Assam now lead by 49 runs. Arup Das and Krishna Das are next, hence Kathick and Tarjinder are the only recognised batting pair at the moment. If Assam lose another wicket, floodgates will open as their tail is not strong.
OUT! Pallav Kumar Das c Rajesh Dhuper b Alok Sahoo 21(35)
Live cricket scores Assam 31/3 | Overs 14| Batting: Pallav Kumar Das 21(34), Tarjinder Singh 9(34): Assam lose their third wicket, Amit Verma is caught by Govinda Poddar on Basant Mohanty’s delivery. Tarjinder Singh has come to the middle after his departure. He hits a nicely timed four and takes his score to nine.
OUT! Amit Verma c Poddar b Mohanty 0(10)
Live cricket scores Assam 9/2 | Overs 3| Batting: Pallav Kumar Das 9(8), Amit Verma 0(4): Assam have started batting in their second innings but have lost two quick wickets, both got out on a duck. Looks like batters of both the teams would struggle in this match. One thing is for sure that this match will give a result. Pallav Kumar Das and Amit Verma have to do the rebuilding process.
OUT! Kunal Saikia b Suryakant Pradhan 0(4), Gokul Sharma c Abhilash Malick b Suryakant Pradhan 0(2)
Live cricket scores Odhisha 88 | Overs 41| Batting: Alok Mangaraj 0(4): What a brilliant comeback by Assam. After they were down and out after scoring only 92 it looked that it’s all over for them but their bowlers have delivered exceedingly well. They picked the last five Odhisha wickets for just36 runs this morning and bundled them on 88 taking a four run lead for the first innings. Arup Das and Krishna Das completely broke the backbone of Odhisha’s batting. They picked three and seven wickets respectively.
OUT! Abhilash Malick c&b Arup Das 4(22) , Anurag Sarangi c Saikia b Krishna Das 27(119), Alok Sahoo c Purkayastha b Arup Das 6(4), Suryakant Pradhan c Saikia b Krishna Das 2(2), Basant Mohanty b Krishna Das 7(9)
Brief scores:
Assam 92 (Basant Mohanty 5 for 24) lead Orissa 52 for 5 (Krishna Das 4 for 5) by 40 runs.
Teams:
Odisha: Biplab Samantray (c), Rajesh Dhuper (wk), Natraj Behera, Govinda Podder, Anurag Sarangi, Pratik Das, Abhilash Mallick, Suryakant Pradhan, Alok Sahoo, Basant Mohanty, Alok Mangaraj.
Assam: Gokul Sharma (c), Kunal Saikia (wk), Amit Verma, Arun Karthik, Tarjinder Singh, Syed Mohammad, Swarupam Purakayastha, Krishna Das, Arup Das, Pallav Das, Pritam Das.
