Cuttack: An unbeaten century partnership between Govinda Poddar and Biplab Samantaray helped Odisha end the opening day of their Ranji Trophy clash against Pondicherry on 230/4.
The experienced duo joined forces after Odisha lost three quick wickets between lunch and tea to slump to 112/4.
The 32-year-old Poddar scored freely and struck 9 fours to be unbeaten on 80 (129 balls) at stumps.
Samantaray was much more circumspect, taking 123 deliveries for his unbeaten 41 which included just 2 boundaries.
It was Odisha’s third home match of the season, but the first one at Barabati Stadium.
Asked to bat first, Odisha openers got off to a cautious start and crawled to 16 in the 12th over before Anurag Sarangi after managing just 8 runs off 32 balls.
Skipper Shantanu Mishra (40 off 134 balls) also found run-scoring difficult as he and Sandeep Pattanaik (44 off 90) added 70 runs.
However, Mishra, Pattanaik and Subhranshu Senapati (8) were dismissed in the space of 5 overs.
Odisha, desperate for another outright victory to keep alive knockout qualification hopes, will bank on Poddar and Samantaray to post at least 350 on the board.
Brief scores: Odisha 230/4 in 87 overs (Govinda Poddar batting 80, Sandeep Pattanaik 44, Biplab Samantaray 41 batting, Shantanu Mishra 40; Gourav Yadav 2/64) vs Pondicherry.
Match to continue on Day 2.
