Raipur: Odisha opened their Ranji Trophy campaign with an innings victory against Chhattisgarh on the penultimate day of the four-day match at Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur on Wednesday.
Put into bat, the host managed to put up 134 runs in their first innings with Ajay Mandal as the top scorer with 47.
In reply, Odisha put up 215 for 9 with wicketkeeper Sujit Lenka scoring the highest, 56, while Biplab Samantaray and Suryakant Pradhan made useful contribution of 30 and 33 runs, respectively.
Trailing by 81 runs, the host began their second innings disastrously with wickets kept falling at regular intervals. Barring Asushosh Singh (43), no other batsman could negotiate the Odisha bowlers at the innings folded at 78, giving the visitors a thumping victory by an innings and three runs.
For Odisha, Rajesh Mohanty bagged a total of 10 wickets in both innings. This was the second 10 wicket haul within the first 10 first class matches for Odisha’s ‘Prince of Pace’ Rajesh.
For his crucial knock, Sujit Lenka was adjudged the man of the match.
With this win, Odisha have bagged full 7 points.
Odisha will meet Services in their second match on December 17.
