Patna: Odisha’s opening Cooch Behar (U-19) Trophy fixture against Bihar is nicely poised here at Moin-ul Haq Stadium.
Chasing a victory target of 276, Bihar were 39/1 in their second innings at stumps on Day 3.
Odisha thus need 9 wickets while the home team will have to score 238 runs on the final day to get their campaign off to a winning start.
Shreyansh Bharadwaj starred with the bat for Odisha in the first innings with a fine 95 and also contributed a useful 33 the second time around.
Skipper Saideep Mohapatra top-scored with 72 in the second innings.
But it was Ashutosh Marndy’s brilliant bowling which helped Odisha gain a handy first-innings lead of 74 runs. The new ball operator bagged 6/47 in 14.5 overs.
The standout performer for Bihar has been Anup Kumar, who dismissed 5 Odisha batters in the first innings and 6 in the second for an impressive match haul of 11 for 100.
Brief scores: Odisha 265 (Shreyansh Bhardwaj 95, Anshuman Sahoo 53; Anup Kumar 5/38) and 202 (Saideep Mohapatra 72, Aashirwad Swain 41, Shreyansh 33; Anup Kumar 6/62). Bihar 191 (Harshit 75, Virat Pandey 45; Ashutosh Marndi 6/47) and 39/1.
Match to continue.
