An inconsistent Odisha bowed out of the Vijay Hazare Trophy Senior Men One-Day Cricket Tournament with a hat-trick of defeats, losing their seventh and last Elite Group-D league match against Railways by five wickets at Alur Cricket Stadium in Bengaluru today.
This was the third successive and fourth overall defeat for Odisha, who finished sixth in the group table with 12 points from seven games. After starting their campaign with a defeat at the hands of Saurashtra, Odisha registered a hat-trick of wins to climb to the top of the table. But the impressive wins against Services, Andhra and Delhi proved in vain as they lost their last three matches against Haryana, Gujarat and Railways.
Put into bat by Railways, Odisha rode on a half-century each by young allrounder Sambit Baral (50, 65 balls, 4x3, 6x1) and Soumya Ranjan Lenka (56, 36 balls, 4x5, 6x4) to make a competitive total of 251. Railways overhauled the target in 45.2 overs, losing five wickets in the process.
Sahab Yuvraj Singh and Zubair Ali played stellar roles in the Railway win, hitting unbeaten 118 and 65 respectively. Yuvraj was adjudged as the player of the match. Stumper Dinesh Majhi made his List-A debut for Odisha in this match. Delhi and Saurashtra qualified for the quarterfinals as the top two finishers in Group D.
SCORECARD
ODISHA: Om T Munde b Zubair Ali 19, Swastik Samal b Varun 7, Shantanu Mishra b Choudhary 23, Govinda Poddar c Marathe b KV Sharma 19, Biplab Samantray (c) c Zubair Ali b Choudhary 43, Sambit Baral c sub (Ansh Yadav) b Zubair Ali 50, Dinesh Majhi (wk) c KV Sharma b Choudhary 15, Soumya Lenka c sub (Kunal Yadav) b Varun 56, Rajesh Mohanty b Pandey 6, Debabrata Pradhan c Sahab Yuvraj Singh b Varun 6, Sayed Tufayl Ahmad not out 1; Extras (lb-1, nb-1, w-4) 6
Total (All out; 49.5 overs) 251
Fall of wickets: 1-15 (Samal, 4.3 overs), 2-34 (Munde, 8.6), 3-70 (Poddar, 17.4), 4-72 (Mishra, 18.3), 5-152 (Samantray, 35.2), 6-176 (Baral, 40.4), 7-181 (Majhi, 42.3), 8-200 (Mohanty, 45.1), 9-223 (Pradhan, 47.3), 10-251 (Lenka, 49.5)
Bowling: Varun Chaman Lal 9.5-0-53-3, Akash Pandey 10-0-52-1, Zubair Ali 9-0-55-2, Karn Sharma 10-0-44-1, Raj Choudhary 10-0-32-3, Sahab Yuvraj Singh 1-0-14-0.
RAILWAYS: Suraj Ahuja c Majhi b Pradhan 10, Pratham Singh b Baral 18, Sahab Yuvraj Singh not out 118, Upendra Yadav (wk) c Rajesh Mohanty b Munde 17, Kush Marathe st Majhi b Poddar 17, Ashutosh Sharma st Majhi b Poddar 0, Zubair Ali not out 65; Extras (lb-5, w-4) 9
Total (5 wickets; 45.2 overs) 254
Did not bat: Akash Pandey, Raj Choudhary, Karn Sharma (c), Varun Chaman Lal
Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Ahuja, 3.6 overs), 2-58 (Pratham Singh, 14.5), 3-98 (Upendra Yadav, 22.3), 4-140 (Marathe, 30.2), 5-140 (Ashutosh Sharma, 30.4 ov)
Bowling: Rajesh Mohanty 7-0-41-0, Debabrata Pradhan 6.2-1-29-1, Sambit Baral 5-0-33-1, Soumya Lenka 4-0-17-0, Govinda Poddar 10-2-46-2, Sayed Tufayl Ahmad 10-0-60-0, Om T Munde 1-0-7-1, Biplab Samantray 2-0-16-0.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PHOTO: Debutant Dinesh Majhi receives his Odisha List-A cap before their last Vijay Hazare Trophy match against Railways in Bengaluru on 8 January 2026.