Superb knock of 132 by skipper Swastik Samal and a half-century each by Raghunath Malla and Binit Kumar Mohanty helped Odisha draw their four-day Cooch Behar Trophy U-19 Elite Group-C match against Saurashtra at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot today.

Forced to follow on after conceding a first-innings lead of 261 runs, Odisha denied Saurashtra an outright win thanks to a 128-run partnership for the second wicket between Malla and Mohanty in the second innings. Riding on this partnership, Odisha were 156 for two on the fourth day when the match ended as draw.

Earlier opting to bat, Saurashtra compiled a mammoth total of 505 with skipper Siddhant Rana hitting a majestic 231 and P Rana scoring an unbeaten 103. Malla was most successful Odisha bowler, taking three wickets for 72 runs. In reply, Odisha were bowled out for 244. Captain Samal did his best with a defiant century, but could not save his team from follow on. His 210-ball knock was studded with 23 boundaries.

Though the match ended in draw, hosts Saurashtra gained three points by virtue of taking first-innings lead, while Odisha settled with one point. Odisha will next meet Assam at BOSE Ground, here from December 31 to January 3.

SCOREBOARD

SAURASHTRA (1st innings): A Rathod c Naik b Sahoo 4, Karan Lagariya c Naik b Malla 51, Siddhant Rana c Jaiswal b Parida 231, HS Kotak b Parida 14, Rishi Patel c K Mallick b Malla 60, Jay Gohil c&b Jaiswal 5, Digvijay Vala c Naik b Jaiswal 0, P Rana (not out) 103, Yuvrajsinh Shinol c K Mallick b Mohanty 0, Dev Dand c Samal b Mohanty 20, Rahul Vankani c B Mallick b Malla 1; Extras (nb-5, w-6, b-1, lb-4) 16
Total (All out; 166 overs) 505
Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Rathod, 6.1 ov), 2-151 (Lagariya, 57.5), 3-195 (Kotak, 81.4 ov), 4-298 (Patel, 108.4), 5-314 (Gohil, 113.2), 6-314 (Vala, 113.3), 7-433 (Rana, 143.5), 8-433 (Shinol, 144.1), 9-502 (Dand, 164.3), 10-505 (Vankani, 165.6)
Bowling: Shibasish Sahoo 25-6-79-1, Minal Parida 28.5-4-94-2, Ankitkar Jaiswal 29-5-88-2, Biswajit Mallick 22-4-75-0, Soumya Saurav Kumar 6-2-19-0, Binit Mohanty 18-3-51-2, Raghunath Malla 28.1-5-72-3, Swastik Samal 9-3-22-0.

ODISHA (1st innings): Swastik Samal c Gohil b Vankani 132, Binit Mohanty c P Rana b Dand 22, Raghunath Malla c Vankani b Dand 18, Anil Parida c Lagariya b Patel 6, Ayush Naik c Gohil b Vankani 0, Soumya S Kumar lbw Dand 6, Kunal Mallick b Shinol 38, Shibasish Sahoo lbw P Rana 1, Minal Parida (run out) Patel 9, Biswajit Mallick (not out) 7, Ankitkar Jaiswal st Lagariya b Dand 3; Extras (nb-1, w-1) 2
Total (All out; 116.3 overs) 244
Fall of wickets: 1-60 (Mohanty, 24.3 ov), 2-122 (Malla, 50.5), 3-151 (Parida, 63.5), 4-152 (Naik, 64.4), 5-173 (SS Kumar, 69.2), 6-185 (Samal, 74.1), 7-186 (Sahoo, 75.4), 8-233 (K Mallick, 105.4), 9-233 (Parida, 106.2), 10-244 (Jaiswal, 116.3)
Bowling: Yuvrajsinh Shinol 18-4-65-1, Rishi Patel 17-5-27-1, Dev Dand 29.3-12-61-4, Rahul Vankani 37-11-68-2, P Rana 15-6-23-1.

ODISHA (2nd innings): S Samal c Lagariya b Dand 10, BK Mohanty (not out) 52, R Malla c Rajdev (Sub) b Patel 85, A Parida (not out) 3; Extras (nb-1, w-3, b-1, lb-1) 6
Total (2 wickets; 66 overs) 156
Did not bat: A Naik, B Mallick, SS Kumar, A Jaiswal, S Sahoo, K Mallick, M Parida
Fall of wickets: 1-14 (Samal, 9.1 ov), 2-142 (Malla, 63.2)
Bowling: R Patel 10-1-29-1, Y Shinol 6-0-17-0, D Dand 13-6-8-1, R Vankani 20-6-50-0, P Rana 12-4-34-0, H Kotak 5-0-16-0.