Rookie left-arm spinner Sarfaraz Ashraf’s five-wicket haul went in vain as Jharkhand went down fighting to Odisha by four runs in their East Zone league match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 Cricket Tournament at Eden Gardens in Kolkata today.
Electing to bat on a spinner-friendly wicket, Odisha made a modest total of 119 for eight. Ashraf rocked the Odisha batting line-up, taking two wickets in the 15th over and three in the 19th. In reply, Jharkhand fumbled at the finish to be restricted to 115 for six.
Allrounder Paresh Patel once again played instrumental role in the Odisha win, hitting a 22-ball 18 and scalping three wickets, all in the last over, for 22 runs. Virat Singh was the top-scorer for Jharkhand, hitting a 45-ball 40. He compiled 78 runs in the fourth wicket stand with Kumar Deobrat, who contributed a 31-ball 39. But left-arm spinner Patel turned the table on Jharkhand striking thrice in the last over.
This was the second win in three matches for Odisha and second defeat in three outings for Jharkhand. Meanwhile, host Bengal consolidated their position at the top of the zonal table, trouncing Tripura by 72 runs in another match of the day at Jadavpur University ground.
Wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha starred in the win, slamming a 37-ball 71 with the help of nine fours and three sixes. This was the third successive win for Bengal and they qualified for the knock-out stage. On the other hand Tripura completed their league engagements, losing all of their four league matches.
SCOREBOARD
ODISHA: Paresh Patel c Shukla b Keshav Kumar 18, Natraj Behera c Virat Singh b Jaggi 23, Anurag Sarangi st Gautam b Ashraf 22, B Samantray c Shukla b Ashraf 16, A Singh b Ashraf 7, Govind Poddar (not out) 11, Deepak Behera c Tiwary b Ashraf 4, Haladhar Das c Tiwary b Ashraf 0, Lagnajit Samal (run out) 3, Basant Mohanty (not out) 1; Extras (b-8, lb-4, w-2) 14
Total (8 wkts; 20 overs) 119
Fall of wickets: 1-41, 2-46, 3-87, 4-91, 5-105, 6-109, 7-109, 8-117
Bowling: R Shukla 3-0-18-0, Vikash Singh 2-0-17-0, Keshav Kumar 4-0-15-1, S Nadeem 4-0-19-0, I Jaggi 3-0-13-1, S Ashraf 4-0-25-5.
ODISHA: IJaggi c Das b J Behera 21, Raju Kumar c Samantray b D Behera 2, S Tiwary c Das b Samal 4, Virat Singh c Samantray b Patel 40, K Deobrat c J Behera b Patel 39, S Ashraf c (sub) b Patel 0, S Nadeem (not out) 0; Extras (b-1, lb-1, w-7) 9
Total (6 wkts; 20 overs) 115
Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-27, 3-34, 4-112, 5-113, 6-115
Bowling: Deepak Behera 3-0-31-1, Basant Mohanty 4-1-11-0, L Samal 4-1-14-1, Jayant Behera 3-0-17-1, Govind Podder 1-0-10-0, Paresh Patel 4-0-22-3, B Samantray 1-0-8-0.