Riding on a half-century by captain Govinda Poddar and fine allround performance by Abhishek Raut, Odisha beat Railways by two wickets in their opening Group-A match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy One-day Tournament at Alur Cricket Stadium-II in Alur today.

Chasing a competitive target of 213, Odisha romped home with 14 balls to spare. Poddar was the top scorer with a 59-ball 64, which was studded with seven boundaries and two sixes. His 105-run partnership for the third wicket with Biplab Samanataray (38) made job easier for Odisha. MR Chaudhary was the most successful bowler for Railways, taking five wickets for 25 runs.

Allrounder Abhishek Raut, who contributed an unbeaten 27 with the bat, scalped three wickets 45 runs as Odisha restricted Railways to 212 after opting to bowl first earlier in the day. Odisha will play their second league match against Punjab tomorrow.

SCORECARD

RAILWAYS: Saurabh Wakaskar c Ranjit b Samantaray 28, Mrunal Devdhar c Raut b Pradhan 4, Arindam Ghosh (run out) Arabind Singh 48, Mahesh Rawat c Rawat b Prayas 10, Chanderpal Saini c Pradhan b Raut 12, Abhishek Kumar Yadav c Pradhan b Raut 5, Ankit Yadav (not out) 32, Anureet Singh c Rawat b Raut 41, Amit Mishra (run out) Raut 10, M Chaudhary b Pradhan 7, H Kadam c Sarangi b D Behera 6; Extras (nb-1, w-1, lb-7) 9
Total (All out; 47.4 overs) 212
Fall of wickets: 1-23 (Devdhar, 6.2 ov), 2-37 (Wakaskar, 9.4), 3-52 (Rawat, 14.2), 4-99 (Saini, 26.3), 5-114 (A Yadav, 30.6), 6-116 (A Ghosh, 32.1), 7-175 (A Singh, 42.5), 8-195 (A Mishra, 45.2), 9-205 (M Chaudhary, 46.4), 10-212 (Kadam, 47.4)
Bowling: Suryakant Pradhan 9-0-45-2, Deepak Behera 7.4-0-37-1, Biplab Samantaray 8-0-35-1, Prayas Singh 4-1-10-1, Jayanta Behera 10-0-33-0, Abhishek Raut 9-1-45-3.

ODISHA: Anurag Sarangi b Chaudhary 19, Ranjit Singh c Devdhar b Chaudhary 21, Govinda Poddar c Anureet b Chaudhary 64, Biplab Samantaray c Wakaskar b Chaudhary 38, Prayas Singh lbw Anureet 11, Arabind Singh c Devdhar b Chaudhary 3, Saurabh Rawat c Kadam b A Yadav 1, Abhishek Raut (not out) 27, Deepak Behera b Mishra 1, Suryakant Pradhan (not out) 11; Extras (w-9, lb-8) 17
Total (8 wickets; 47 overs) 213
Did not bat: Jayanta Behera.
Fall of wickets: 1-40 (Ranjit, 11.3 ov), 2-45 (Sarangi, 13.2), 3-150 (Poddar, 29.3), 4-163 (Samantaray, 31.3), 5-172 (Prayas, 34.5), 6-172 (Arabind, 35.3), 7-184 (Rawat, 40.1), 8-187 (D Behera, 41.3)
Bowling: Anureet Singh 10-2-24-1, Amit Mishra 10-1-47-1, MR Chaudhary 10-4-25-5, Ankit Yadav 7-0-41-1, Chanderpal Saini 3-0-23-0, H Kadam 7-0-45-0.