A hapless Odisha maintained their losing streak in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 Tournament when they went down to Jharkhand by 54 runs in an Elite Group-B match at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata today. This was the fourth successive defeat for Odisha, who will play their fifth and last league match against Assam on January 18.
Opting to bat, Jharkhand rode on a half-century each by captain Ishan Kishan and Virat Singh to amass a sizeable total of 182 for four. Tarani Sa was most successful bowler for Odisha, picking up two wickets for 37 runs on debut. Walter Toppo also made his T20 debut for Odisha in this match.
In reply, Odisha were bowled out for 128 in 17.5 overs. After a bright start that witnessed a 66-run partnership for the opening wicket between Gaurav Choudhary and Govinda Poddar, Odisha crumbled like a pack of cards, losing 10 wickets for 62 runs.
Choudhary was the top scorer with a 23-ball 36, which featured five boundaries and one six. The biggest disappointment was the performance of Biplab Samantray who failed to open his account. In four matches so far, he has contributed a total of 13 runs.
Though an allrounder, Samantray has not bowled a single over yet. It is all the more baffling that despite repeated failures, he has been promoted as the captain of the side after two matches. Be it batting or bowling, none of the Odisha players has shown any consistency in the four matches so far.
SCORECARD
JHARKHAND: Ishan Kishan (c)+ c Yadav b Roy 60, Vikash Vishal c Senapati b Sa 21, Virat Singh lbw Sa 67, Saurabh Tiwary lbw Yadav 17, Kumar Deobrat not out 7, Anukul Roy not out 7; Extras (b-1, lb-1, w-1) 3
Total (4 wickets, 20 overs, RR 9.10) 182
Did not bat: Monu Kumar, Vivekanand Tiwari, Utkarsh Singh, Shahbaz Nadeem, Bal Krishna
Fall of wickets: 1-76 (Kishan, 8.4 ov), 2-95 (Vishal, 11.5 ov), 3-126 (Tiwary, 15.6 ov), 4-171 (Virat, 19.3 ov)
Bowling: Suryakant Pradhan 4-0-38-0, Sunil Roul 3-0-36-0, Govinda Poddar 4-0-28-0, Tarani Sa 4-0-37-2, Pappu Roy 3-0-17-1, Ankit Yadav 2-0-24-1.
ODISHA: Gaurav Choudhary run out (Vikash Vishal/Nadeem) 36, Govinda Poddar c Roy b Krishna 28, Biplab Samantray (c) c Vishal b Krishna 0, Subhranshu Senapati c Deobrat b Krishna 18, Rajesh Dhuper † b Krishna 13, Ankit Yadav run out (Roy) 2, Walter Toppo b Monu Kumar 8, Suryakant Pradhan c Vishal b Nadeem 19, Sunil Roul lbw Monu Kumar 0, Pappu Roy not out 0, Tarani Sa lbw Nadeem 0; Extras (lb-2, w-2) 4
Total (all out, 17.5 over, RR 7.17) 128
Fall of wickets: 1-66 (Choudhary, 7.6 ov), 2-66 (Samantray, 8.2 ov), 3-68 (Poddar, 8.5 ov), 4-90 (Dhuper, 11.4 ov), 5-95 (Yadav, 12.6 ov), 6-105 (Senapati, 13.6 ov), 7-127 (Toppo, 16.5 ov), 8-127 (Roul, 16.6 ov), 9-127 (Pradhan, 17.2 ov), 10-128 (Sa, 17.5 ov)
Bowling: Monu Kumar 3-0-21-2, Vivekanand Tiwari 3-0-33-0, Shahbaz Nadeem 3.5-0-23-2, Anukul Roy 4-0-28-0, Bal Krishna 4-0-21-4.