Orissa beats Punjab by nine wickets

Bhubaneswar, Nov 26 (UNI) Orissa registered their first win in the Ranji Elite Group A cricket trophy by beating Punjab by nine wickets here today.

After bowling out Punjab for 378 in their second innings, Orissa set a target of only 87 runs to win, which they achieved for the lost of one wicket.

Earlier, resuming their overnight score of 256 for five, Punjab batsmen added only 122 runs with Ankur Kakar from an overnight of 77 batted on to his first class century to score 117 runs before he was trapped lbw by Debashish Mohanty.

Udaya Kaul with his overnight score of 58 runs, was dismissed by Basant Mohanty for 71 runs and Gurdeep Singh remained unbeaten for 45 in 127 balls.

A fine bowling by Debashis Mohanty 5 for 72 and Basant Mohanty 2 for 82 restricted Punjab 378 all out in the second innings.

Set to score 87 runs only to win the match, Host Orissa achieved the target in just 23.3 overs thanks to Bikash Pati who made a quick 33 runs from 35 balls before being claimed by Sidharth Kaul.

With the win Orissa took five points and placed at the fifth position in the points table.

Congratulating the Orissa players for their win over Punjab, the Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) announced a cash reward of Rs 50,000 each to captain S S Das, batsman Prabhanjan Mallick and bowlers Debashis Mohanty and Basant Mohanty.

The rest players were awarded a cash reward of Rs 20,000 each.

Brief scores: Punjab (Ist innings) 60 all out Orissa (Ist innings) 352 all out Punjab (Second innings; 378 all out Orissa (second innings: 87 for 1 (S S Das 38 not out, Bikash Pati 33) UNI DP KK CS KP2025