Mahesh Rawat hit an unbeaten 88 to escort Railways to a six-wicket win over Odisha in their Group-A match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy Tournament at Palam A Ground in New Delhi today. This was the second win in six matches for Railways and fourth defeat in five games for Odisha.

Chasing 229 for victory, Railways overcame an early setback to romp home with one over to spare. Rawat faced 97 balls for his unbeaten knock of 88, which included seven boundaries and three sixes. His 103-run partnership for the fourth wicket with Arindam Ghosh took the game away from Odisha. Captain Govind Poddar was the pick of the Odisha bowlers, taking two wickets for 35 runs.

Earlier, put into bat by Railway captain Karn Sharma, Odisha rode on a 117-ball 85 (10x4) by opener Sandeep Pattnaik to muster a respectable total of 228 for eight. Among other Odisha batsmen, Biplab Samantaray (33), Anurag Sarangi (32) and Aravind Singh (26 not out) made useful contributions.

SCOREBOARD
ODISHA: Sandeep Pattanaik c Rawat b Yadav 85, Anurag Sarangi c Ambikeshwar Mishra b Karn Sharma 32, Govinda Poddar c Ghosh b Yadav 3, Abhishek Yadav b K Sharma 13, Biplab Samantaray c Anureet Singh b Ambikeshwar Mishra 33, Arabind Singh (not out) 26, Rajkishan Patel lbw Ambikeshwar Mishra 3, Sujit Lenka c Ambikeshwar Mishra b Amit Mishra 19, Deepak Behera st Rawat b Amit Mishra 10; Extras (nb-1, w-2, lb-1) 4
Total (8 wickets; 50 overs) 228
Fall of wickets: 1-67 (Anurag Sarangi, 17.1 ov), 2-81 (Govinda Poddar, 20.1 ov), 3-100 (Abhishek Yadav, 25.1 ov), 4-164 (Sandeep Pattanaik, 36.6 ov), 5-178 (Biplab Samantaray, 41.5 ov), 6-186 (Rajkishan Patel, 43.1 ov), 7-218 (Sujit Lenka, 49.1 ov), 8-228 (Deepak Behera, 49.6 ov)
Bowling: Anureet Singh 7-1-35-0, Amit Mishra 6-1-31-2, S Thakran 7-1-28-0, Karn Sharma 10-0-52-2, Ashish Yadav 10-0-36-2, Ambikeshwar Mishra 10-0-45-2

RAILWAYS: Asadulla Khan lbw Mohanty 0, Shivakant Shukla lbw Poddar 30, Ashish Yadav c Senapati (Sub) b Anurag Sarangi 45, Arindam Ghosh c Yadav b Poddar 45, Mahesh Rawat (not out) 88, Karn Sharma (not out) 18; Extras (nb-1, w-2, lb-2) 5
Total (4 wickets; 49 overs) 231
Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Asadulla khan, 0.3 ov), 2-72 (Shivakant Shukla, 16.4 ov), 3-80 (Ashish Yadav, 19.2 ov), 4-183 (Arindam Ghosh, 41.3 ov)
Bowling: Basant Mohanty 7-2-43-1, Deepak Behera 5-1-30-0, Govinda Poddar 8-0-35-2, Biplab Samantaray 3-0-19-0, Rajkishan Patel 10-0-50-0, Anurag Sarangi 6-0-20-1, Dhiraj Singh 10-0-32-0.