Yuvraj stands between Odisha and victory

Mohali, January 30

Punjab are staring at an outright defeat after yet another top-order collapse in their second innings against minnows Odisha in their Ranji Trophy match here on Friday.

While Odisha got a slender first innings lead of 16 runs, finishing on 183, the seam trio of Basant Mohanty (2/16), Deepak Behera (1/18) and Alok Mangaraj (1/3) reduced Punjab to 37 for four at stumps in their second innings with Yuvraj Singh (18 batting) standing between victory and defeat. Punjab now have an overall lead of 21 runs with six wickets in hand.

Starting the day at 54 for one, Odisha lost wickets at regular intervals thanks to some fine swing bowling by Siddharth Kaul (5/34) and Sandeep Sharma (3/65) but managed to surpass Odisha’s total. After getting the first innings lead, Odisha hit back with the ball with Behera removing Punjab opener Jiwanjot Singh for a duck. Uday Kaul, the other opener, too fell soon, caught behind. Taruwar Kohli and skipper Mandeep Singh too couldn’t last long.

For Punjab, Yuvraj, batting on 18, need to bat long to give his team some sort of chance in the almost lost cause. If he goes early on Saturday morning, Odisha will have the match in their pocket. — PTI

Ranji: Brief scores

Punjab: 167; Odisha: 183 all out (Sarangi 47; Siddharth 5/34, Sandeep 3/65) Punjab: 37/4 (Basant Mohanty 2/16).

Himachal: 535/5 decl in 136 overs (Paras 204 not out, Bipul 119 not out; Murasingh 2/118); Tripura:  143/2 in 42 overs (Bishal Ghosh 81 not out, Rakesh Solanki 42 not out; Rishi 2/40).

Haryana: 373 in 97.4 overs; Rajasthan: 180 in 51.4 overs (Menaria 71; Harshal 6/69), & 38/5 in 18 overs (Harshal 3/24, Joginder 2/14)

MP: 371 (Saxena 89, Ojha 85; Dyal 5/65) J&K: 175/8 (Aditya 64; Mihir 2/7).