Cricketers presented Odisha with a memorable Christmas gift, registering an eight-wicket win over hosts Jammu & Kashmir on the fourth and last day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group-C match at Gandhi Memorial Government Science College Ground in Jammu today.

Opener Shantanu Mishra and Subhranshu Senapati capped the win with a half-century each in the second innings. The thumping win was the third in seven matches for Odisha and fetched them six points. With this win, Odisha moved up from eighth to fifth position with 19 points in the group table.

Trailing by 196 runs in the first-innings and resuming their second at the overnight score of 272 for seven, Jammu Kashmir added another 119 runs before being all out for 391. The home team fought back into the match thanks to a fine century by captain Parvez Rasool. Opener Qamran Iqbal was another J & K Batsman to shine in their second innings, scoring 67 runs. Among Basant Mohanty was most successful Odisha bowler in the second innings, taking wickets.

Chasing a challenging target of 196, Odisha romped home comfortably, thanks to a 112-run partnership for the second wicket between Mishra and Senapati. Mishra hit a career-best 78 (147b, 9x4), which was his fourth half-century in first-class cricket. Senapati slammed an unbeaten on 72 (101b, 2x4, 2x6) to register his seventh first-class fifty. Odisha allrounder Abhishek Raut was adjudged as the man of the match for his unbeaten knock of 116 in the first innings.

In their first innings, an unbeaten century by Abhishek Raut and a career-best 85 by Debasish Samantray helped Odisha compile a healthy total of 323, in reply to a modest 127 by Jammu & Kashmir. Odisha suffered a middle-order collapse as they were reduced to 115 for five, losing four wickets in space of 15 runs. However, Samantray and Raut repaired the damage with a 103-run partnership for the sixth wicket.

After Samantray fell for 85 (190b, 7x4, 2x6), bettering his previous highest first-class knock of 50, Raut further consolidated the Odisha innings with good support from lower-order batsmen. Especially, his 65-run stand for the ninth wicket with Basant Mohanty proved to be rich bonus for Odisha.

The 212-ball unbeaten knock of 116 by Raut was his maiden first-class ton and featured 11 boundaries and three sixes. This was also his career-best effort in first-class cricket, the previous best being an unbeaten 83, which he had achieved in his first match for Odisha last month against Tripura.

Earlier on the opening day, hauls of four for 27 and three for 24 by pacers Suryakant Pradhan and Basant Mohanty respectively, followed by an unbeaten half-century by opener Anurag Sarangi gave Odisha an ideal platform to go for an outright win.

Opting to bat, Jammu & Kashmir were in dire straits, losing four wickets with only seven runs on the board. They managed to muster the modest total, thanks to a fighting knock of 44 by Owais Shah and a cameo 27 by Akash Choudhary. Shah rescued the home team from a hopeless position, stitching together 55 runs in his fifth-wicket stand with former India allrounder Irfan Pathan.

Odisha started their innings on shaky note as opener Shantanu Mishra departed early, castled by Pathan for five. However, Sarangi the Debasish Samantray steadied the innings with a 75-run unfinished partnership for the second wicket. When stumps were drawn for the day Sarangi and Samantray were batting on 56 (105b, 11x4) and 20 respectively.

Odisha Cricket Association retained the victorious state senior team for their next Ranji match to be played against Services at Airforce Ground, Palam, Delhi from December 30 to January 2. However, Bishnudev Mohanty was added to the squad as observer.

SCOREBOARD

JAMMU & KASHMIR (1st innings): Qamran Iqbal c Raut b Pradhan 0, Shubham Khajuria lbw Mohanty 0, Ian Chauhan c Rao b Pradhan 5, Owais Shah lbw Mohanty 44, Parvez Rasool lbw Pradhan 0, Irfan Pathan c Raut b D Singh 10, Obaid Haroon lbw Mohanty 6, Aamir Aziz lbw Pradhan 4, Akash Choudhary (run out) B Samantaray 27, Mohammed Mudhasir (not out) 12, Umar Nazir c&b D Singh 3; Extras (b-5, lb-11) 16
Total (All out; 53.3 overs) 127
Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Iqbal, 1.1 ov), 2-5 (Khajuria, 2.3), 3-7 (Chauhan, 11.1), 4-7 (Rasool, 11.2), 5-62 (Pathan, 28.2), 6-74 (Shah, 35.6), 7-75 (Haroon, 37.3), 8-88 (Aziz, 45.6), 9-112 (Choudhary, 48.6), 10-127 (Nazir, 53.3)
Bowling: Basant Mohanty 16-8-24-3, Suryakant Pradhan 15-6-27-4, Biplab Samantaray 7-1-17-0, Govinda Poddar 3-1-12-0, Dhiraj Singh 8.3-3-9-2, Abhishek Raut 4-0-22-0.

ODISHA (1st innings): Anurag Sarangi c Haroon b Pathan 57, Shantanu Mishra b Pathan 5, Debasish Samantray b Rasool 85, Subhranshu Senapati c Rasool b Pathan 4, Govinda Poddar b Nazir 2, Biplab Samantaray lbw Nazir 1, Abhishek Raut (not out) 116, P Rosan Kumar Rao lbw Pathan 6, Suryakant Pradhan c Shah b Nazir 17, Basant Mohanty b Mudhasir 13, Dhiraj Singh lbw Mudhasir 0; Extras (nb-3, b-8, lb-6) 17
Total (All out; 106.3 overs) 323
Fall of wicket: 1-16 (Mishra, 6.6 ov), 2/100 (Sarangi, 36.6), 3-110 (Senapati, 42.5), 4-113 (Poddar, 43.6), 5-115 (Samantaray, 45.1), 6-218 (Samantray, 77.1), 7-229 (Rao, 82.3), 8-256 (Pradhan, 85.5), 9-321 (Mohanty, 104.6), 10-323 (D Singh, 106.3)
Bowling: Irfan Pathan 21-9-52-4, Mohammed Mudhasir 16.3-2-55-2, Parvez Rasool 30-7-75-1, Akash Choudhary 10-0-30-0, Umar Nazir 18-2-49-3, Aamir Aziz 11-1-48-0.

JAMMU & KASHMIR (2nd innings):Qamran Iqbal lbw Mohanty 67, Shubham Khajuria c Rao b D Singh 11, Ian Chauhan lbw Mohanty 4, Owais Shah c Mishra b Poddar 28, Parvez Rasool c Pradhan b Mohanty 158, Irfan Pathan c Mishra b Poddar 15, Obaid Haroon b D Singh 2, Akash Choudhary (run out) Raut 7, Aamir Aziz c D Singh b Mohanty 56, Mohammed Mudhasir c Sarangi b Pradhan 31; Extras (nb-1, w-1, lb-10) 12
Total (All out; 134.4 overs) 391
Fall of wickets: 1-60 (Khajuria, 31.3 ov), 2-67 (Chauhan, 36.3), 3-110 (Iqbal, 54.5), 4-138 (Shah, 59.5), 5-207 (Pathan, 82.2), 6-226 (Haroon, 89.4), 7-247 (Choudhary, 94.4), 8-357 (Rasool, 127.1), 9-385 (Aziz, 133.6), 10-391 (Mudhasir, 134.4)
Bowling: Suryakant Pradhan 28.4-5-96-1, Basant Mohanty 37-14-59-4, Dhiraj Singh 38-9-112-2, Abhishek Raut 2-0-18-0, Biplab Samantaray 11-1-27-0, Govinda Poddar 18-0-69-2.

ODISHA (2nd innings): Shantanu Mishra c Waseem Raza (Sub) b Mudhasir 78, Anurag Sarangi st Haroon b Rasool 20, Subhranshu Senapati (not out) 72, Govinda Poddar (not out) 20; Extras (w-1, b-2, lb-2) 6
Total (2 wickets; 49.1 overs) 197
Fall of wickets: 1-47 (Sarangi, 14.5), 2-159 (Mishra, 44.6)
Bowling: Irfan Pathan 12-1-40-0, Mohammed Mudhasir 7-1-35-1, Umar Nazir 1-0-11-0, Parvez Rasool 16-2-46-1, Aamir Aziz 10.1-0-45-0, Akash Choudhary 3-0-15-0.
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PHOTO: Players and support staff of Odisha team celebrate after their win over Jammu & Kashmir in Jammu on Dec 25, 2018.