Mohapatra slams 102*; Orissa annihilate Assam

Brilliant unbeaten century by Prasanta Mohapatra powered Orissa to an eight-wicket win over Assam on the last day of their four-day Ranji Trophy East Zone match at North-East Frontier Railway Stadium in Guwahati today. This was overall 28th win in 145 Ranji Trophy matches for Orissa and 16th victory in 41 matches against Assam.

Chasing a challenging target of 267, Orissa rode on a 229-ball unbeaten 102 (5x4, 2x6) by opener Mohapatra and a half-century each by Shiv Sundar Das (85 off 179, 8x4) and captain Sanjay Raul (65* off 67, 9x4) to clinch the convincing win, losing two wickets in the process. Mohapatra, who also carried his bat, passed 1500 runs in first-class cricket.

Earlier, Assam posted a respectable total of 212 after captain Gautam Dutta won the toss and opted to bat first. Captain Raul and leggie Shahid Ali Khan were joint-most successful Orissa bowlers, picking up three wickets apiece.

In reply, Orissa made 216 to take a first-innings slender lead of four runs. Opener P Jayachandra was the top scorer with a 178-ball knock of 84 (9x4, 1x6). In the second innings, Assam were bowled out for 262.

SCORECARD (Orissa Match No 145):

ASSAM (1st innings): A Das b Khan 13, SB Saikia c Gopal b DS Mohanty 59, Rajinder Singh c Gopal b Khan 2, SS Sawant c Mohapatra b Raul 35, RK Borah b DS Mohanty 9, SR Das b SC Mohanty 2, *GD Dutta not out 54, +VR Samant c Mohapatra b Khan 9, Sukhvinder Singh run out 3, AN Bhagawati lbw Raul 11, SG Chakraborty st Gopal b Raul 0; Extras (b-2, lb-4, nb-9) 15
Total (all out, 76 overs) 212
Fall of wickets: 1-50, 2-52, 3-96, 4-123, 5-126, 6-151, 7-164, 8-167, 9-212, 10-212
Orissa bowling: DS Mohanty 20-5-56-2, Seth 8-2-27-0, Raul 16-5-32-3, Khan 18-2-54-3, SC Mohanty 14-2-37-1.

ORISSA (1st innings): P Jayachandra c SR Das b Dutta 84, Prasanta Mohapatra c SR Das b Bhagawati 11, Shiv Sundar Das b Bhagawati 15, *Sanjay Raul c SR Das b Sukhvinder Singh 5, Abakash Khatua c Sawant b Sukhvinder Singh 0, Rashmi Ranjan Parida c Samant b Dutta 10, +Gautam Gopal c Saikia b Sukhvinder Singh 12, Rajiv Seth b Dutta 37, Subash Chandra Mohanty b Sukhvinder Singh 16, Shahid Ali Khan not out 12, Debasis Mohanty lbw Dutta 1; Extras (lb-11, nb-2) 13
Total (all out, 90.5 overs) 216
Fall of wickets: 1-40, 2-107, 3-112, 4-112, 5-133, 6-140, 7-146, 8-192, 9-213, 10-216
Assam bowling: Dutta 21.5-2-64-4, Bhagawati 21-5-49-2, Sukhvinder Singh 34-14-54-4, Sawant 11-0-26-0, Rajinder Singh 3-1-12-0.

ASSAM (2nd innings): A Das c Gopal b DS Mohanty 39, SB Saikia c Gopal b DS Mohanty 50, Rajinder Singh c Das b DS Mohanty 39, SS Sawant run out 35, *GD Dutta c Gopal b SC Mohanty 38, RK Borah b Khan 11, Sukhvinder Singh c DS Mohanty b SC Mohanty 18, +VR Samant c Gopal b Seth 10, SR Das c Gopal b Khan 0, AN Bhagawati not out 7, SG Chakraborty absent hurt; Extras (b-12, nb-3) 15
Total (all out, 85.1 overs) 262
Fall of wickets: 1-84, 2-105, 3-162, 4-183, 5-214, 6-236, 7-249, 8-251, 9-262
Orissa bowling: DS Mohanty 23-7-70-3, Seth 12.1-3-25-1, Raul 19-0-66-0, Khan 23-6-56-2, SC Mohanty 8-0-33-2.

ORISSA (2nd innings): P Jayachandra c Sawant b Dutta 0, PR Mohapatra not out 102, SS Das b Borah 85, *SS Raul not out 65; Extras (b-1, lb-4, nb-1, w-2) 8
Total (2 wickets, 79.2 overs) 260
Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-164
Assam bowling: Dutta 20-2-56-1, Bhagawati 6-2-14-0, Sukhvinder Singh 23-6-65-0, Sawant 11-4-34-0, Rajinder Singh 5-0-11-0, SR Das 3.2-0-16-0, Borah 11-0-59-1.
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PHOTO: Undated file photo of Orissa batsman Prasanta Mohapatra.