Halhadar ton props up Orissa, fine debut by Siddharth 4-58

Chandigarh, Dec 17 (UNI) A brilliant century by 21-year-old Halhdar Das helped Orissa to collect 273 for 8 on the opening day of their four-day Group B Super League match against Punjab in the Ranji Trophy Championship at the PCA Stadium here today.

Orissa, put in to bat by Punjab who won the toss, at one stage were struggling at 4 for 50 before Rashmi Parida (52, 5x4s), Jayachandra (36, 4x4s, 1x6) and topscorer Halhdar (100, 9x4s, 2x6s) bolstered their innings. Parida and Jayachandra were associated in a 71-run partnership for the fifth wicket. Later Parida and Halhdhar realised 78 runs for the seventh wicket.

Punjab medium fast bowlers Gagandeep Singh (3 for 37) and 18-year-old Siddharth Kaul (4 for 58) were the most sucessive bowlers.

Kangra-born Siddharth made an impressive debut capturing four for 58.

Orissa (Ist innings): Bikas Pati b Gagandeep Singh 13 Shiv Sunder Das b Siddharth Kaul 19 Niranjan Behera lbw Gagandeep Singh 13 Rashmi Parida c Sohal b Goel 52 Rashmi Das c Uday Kaul b Siddharth Kaul 0 P Jayachandra b S Kaul 36 Halhdar Das c Uday Kaul b Siddharth Kaul 100 Debasis Mohanty lbw Gagandeep Singh 12 Soubrah Sehgal not out 1 Extras (b 10, lb 5, nb 12) 27 Total (for 8 wkts in 86 overs) 273.

Fall of wickets:1-20, 2-48, 3-50, 4-50, 5-121, 6-189, 7-267, 8-273.

Bowling: Gagandeep Singh 18-2-37-3 VRV Singh 15-1-68-0 Siddharth Kaul 20-6-58-4 Ravi Inder 5-1-11-0 Ankur Kakkar 13-2-40-0 Charanjit Singh 12-2-28-0 Karan Goel 3-0-16-1 UNI