Bengal wrapped up what was meant to be a four-day Ranji Trophy 2015-16 contest in just one and a half day after they blew away Odisha for an unbelievable 37, prompting a livid visiting team to lodge a
Bengal wrapped up what was meant to be a four-day Ranji Trophy 2015-16 contest in just one and a half day after they blew away Odisha for an unbelievable 37, prompting a livid visiting team to lodge a complaint about the nature of the pitch with the Indian board.
Hosts Bengal comfortably won the Group A match by 133 runs at the Bengal Cricket Academy ground that resembled a minefield. Interestingly, the venue was hosting its inaugural first-class match.
It was pacer Ashoke Dinda who wreaked havoc with figures of 7/19, including a hat-trick, as Odisha were bundled out in 19.2 overs in pursuit of their victory target of 171.
A fuming Odisha Cricket Association secretary said, “Is this the kind of wicket you prepare for first-class matches What is the point of having a four-day match if you want to make an under-prepared wicket and get it over in one and half days.
“We’re extremely disappointed at the way they have prepared the wicket. We’ve filed a complaint with the match referee and sent a report to the BCCI’s grounds committee head Daljit Singh.”
Skipper Natraj said, “This was an absolutely dangerous pitch.” In Hubballi, defending champions Karnataka maintained their strong grip over Delhi as they piled up a mammoth first innings score of 542. At stumps on the second day, Delhi reached 60/1 with skipper Gautam Gambhir holding fort.
Scores: Group A: Bengal 142 & 135 (B. Mohanty 5/16) bt Odisha 107 & 37 (A. Dinda 7/19, P. Ojha 3/14). Haryana 112 & 62/0 (N. Saini 42*) vs Rajasthan 279 (P. Yadav 46, A. Menaria 47, S. Dobal 43). Karnataka 542 (Robin Uthappa 148, Mayank Agarwal 118, Navdeep Saini 3/85) vs Delhi 60/1 (Gautam Gambhir 33 batting). Assam 223/4 ( Arun Karthik 105*, G. Sharma 59*) vs Maharashtra.
Group B: Madhya Pradesh 240 & 201 (J. Saxena 79, N. Ojha 42, S. Thakur 3/33, I. Abdulla 3/53) vs Mumbai 162 (J. Saxena 5/66, A. Sharma 5/80). Railways 182 & 194/8 (A. Yadav 55*, B. Sudhakar 4/49) vs Andhra 114 (DB Prasanth 49, Anureet 3/25, Karn 5/30). TN vs Gujarat (no play). Punjab 272 (P. Kumar 4/81, A. Rajpoot 3/60) vs UP 205/8 (U. Sharma 49, H. Singh 3/31)
