Valuable half-century in each innings by star allrounder Biplab Samantaray helped Odisha draw their four-day Group-C Ranji Trophy match against Andhra at Dr PVG Raju ACA Sports Complex in Vizianagaram today. But host Andhra gained three points by virtue of taking a 193-run first-innings lead, while Odisha settled with one point.

In reply to a massive first innings total of 584 for five declared by Andhra, Odisha were all out for 391 after resuming at the overnight score of 294 for six on the final day. Forced to follow on, Odisha faced the ignominy of an innings defeat as they were reduced to 81 for six in the second innings. But an unbeaten 62 (112 ball, 8x4, 2x6) by Samantaray and good supporting roles by Subham Nayak and Basant Mohanty enabled Odisha take the match to a draw.

This was the 13th first-class half-century for Samantray, who slammed a 220-ball 72 with the help of seven boundaries and one six earlier in the first innings. Besides Samantray, captain Govinda Poddar and middle-order batsman Subhranshu Senapati put up impressive performance in the match for Odisha.

Poddar registered his six first-class century with a 182-ball 111 (13x4), while Senapati posted his fourth first-class half-century with a 197-ball 91 (11x4, 1x6). Bhargav Bhatt was most successful bowler for Andhra, taking eight wickets in the match. Andhra skipper G Hanuma Vihari was declared man of the match for his majestic unbeaten knock of 302 (29x4, 2x6).

D Prashanth Kumar (127, 17x4, 2x6) and Ricky Bhui (100, 9x4, 5x6) hit a century each to help Vihari muster the mammoth total. Vihari led from the front as he compiled 270 runs in the second-wicket stand with Prashanth and then added 208 runs for the third wicket with Bhui.

Odisha made two changes in their team, replacing Ranjit Singh and Deepak Behera with Abinash Saha and new-face Subham Nayak. Making his First-Class debut, right-arm off-break bowler Nayak failed to take any wicket. Odisha will next meet Mumbai at KIIT Cricket Stadium in Bhubaneswar from November 1 to 4.

SCOREBOARD

ANDHRA (1st innings): D Prashanth Kumar b Mohanty 127, K Bharat b Pradhan 3, G Hanuma Vihari (not out) 302, Rickey Bhui lbw Poddar 100, D Ravi Teja b Pradhan 1, B Sumnath c Poddar b D Singh 17, Ashwin Hebbar (not out) 13; Extras (lb-18, w-3) 21
Total (5 wkts decl; 166 overs) 584
Fall of wickets: 1-8 (Bharat, 5.4 ov), 2-278 (Prashanth Kumar, 89.5 ov), 3-486 (Bhui, 133.2 ov), 4-489 (Teja, 134.3 ov), 5-555 (Sumnath, 158.5 ov)
Bowling: Basant Mohanty 36-8-82-1, Suryakant Pradhan 31-2-106-2, Biplab Samantaray 20-1-72-0, Govinda Poddar 27-2-102-1, Dhiraj Singh 36-2-137-1, Subham Nayak 16-1-67-0.

ODISHA (1st innings): Sandeep Pattanaik c Jyothisaikrishna (Sub) b Sasikanth 21, Natraj Behera lbw Bhatt 4, Govinda Poddar c Hebbar b Sasikanth 111, Subhranshu Senapati b Bhatt 91, Biplab Samantaray c Prashanth Kumar b Teja 72, Saurabh Rawat b Bhatt 23, Abinash Saha lbw Shoaib 5, Subham Nayak b Teja 0, Basant Mohanty c Vihari b Teja 23, Suryakant Pradhan c Vihari b Bhatt 28, Dhiraj Singh (not out) 1; Extras (b-4, lb-5, w-3) 12
Total (All out; 139.3 overs) 391
Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Behera, 3.3 ov), 2-51 (Pattanaik, 15.2), 3-236 (Poddar, 71.4), 4-236 (Senapati, 72.6), 5-281 (Rawat, 91.2), 6-294 (Saha, 98.6), 7-294 (Nayak, 102.5), 8-330 (Mohanty, 119.4), 9-379 (Pradhan, 134.6), 10-391 (Samantaray, 139.3)
Bowling: Ayyappa Bandaru 26-3-103-0, Bhargav Bhatt 53-21-77-4, Shoaib Mohammed Khan 27-4-96-1, K Sasikanth 13-3-50-2, Ashwin Hebbar 8-2-20-0, D Ravi Teja 11.3-3-34-3, B Sumnath 1-0-2-0.

ODISHA (2nd innings): S Pattanaik c Hebbar b Bhatt 17, N Behera b Sasikanth 0, G Poddar c Vihari b Bandaru 10, S Senapati c Bhui b Bhatt 15, B Samantaray (not out) 62, S Rawat lbw Bhatt 13, A Saha lbw Bhatt 2, S Nayak c Vihari b Prashanth Kumar 12, B Mohanty (not out) 11; Extras (b-7, lb-2, w-1) 10
Total (7 wkets; 55 overs) 152
Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Behera, 3.6 ov), 2-28 (Poddar, 11.3), 3-43 (Senapati, 16.2), 4-52 (Pattanaik, 20.2), 5-79 (Rawat, 29.4), 6-81 (Saha, 31.2), 7-131 (Nayak, 43.5)
Bowling: B Bhatt 25-11-40-4, Ravi Teja 6-2-15-0, K Sasikanth 5-1-25-1,
Shoaib Khan 14-1-49-0, A Bandaru 2-1-14-1, Prashanth Kumar 2-2-0-1, H Vihari 1-1-0-0.