A much improved batting performance in the second innings went in vain as hosts Odisha suffered a 207-run defeat against Tamil Nadu on the fourth and last day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group-A match at KIIT Stadium, Bhubaneswar today. This was the fourth defeat for Odisha who were demoted to the seventh and penultimate spot in the group table with seven points from six matches.

Chasing a massive target of 455 for victory, Odisha tried their best to at least salvage a draw. But the inability to construct a big partnership resulted in the crushing defeat as the home team were bowled out for 247, despite a responsible knock of 55 by captain Subhranshu Senapati and a pugnacious 98 by Anil Parida.

Odisha lost the match in the first innings itself as they folded up for a paltry 148, in reply to 286 by Tamil Nadu. After taking a lead of 138, the visitors made 316 in their second innings to put themselves firmly on the path of victory.

Notwithstanding the defeat, Odisha found a heart-warming positive from the match because of the outstanding performance of middle-order batter Parida. He was also the top scorer in the first innings with a matured half-century and missed the century by a whisker in the second essay.

The most important factor of the 25-year-old Cuttack batter was his consistency. Parida scored eight and 99 not out on the debut First-Class match against Services last year. But this season, he was not considered for the first four matches, out of which Odisha lost three and drew one, while conceding first-innings lead.

Any player in place of Parida would have felt really bad for being dropped from the playing XI after a successful debut. But the right-handed batter had confidence in his ability and was determined to vindicate his worth with a bigger achievement. He did it with an unbeaten 118 on his comeback-match, which Odisha won by 299 runs against Nagaland two months back.

In three First-Class matches so far, Parida has scored 379 runs with an admirable average of 126.33. According to State senior selector Abakash Khatua, Parida is a disciplined batter and highly committed for the cause of the team. He is also an outstanding fielder. It is, of course, too early to predict how successful Parida would be in the long run. But his consistency has certainly made him the most dependable batter of the team.

SCORECARD

TAMIL NADU (1st innings): Athish SR c Dhuper b Pradhan 50, Narayan Jagadeesan (wk) b Mohanty 7, P Vidyuth c Mishra b Mohanty 12, Pradosh Ranjan Paul c sub (PS Rana) b Baral 78, C Andre Siddarth c sub (S Roul) b Poddar 56, Guruswamy Ajitesh st Dhuper b Samantray 0, Nidhish Rajagopal b Pradhan 54, Sonu Yadav c Samantray b Poddar 8, Sai Kishore (c) c Poddar b Mohanty 12, Gurjapneet Singh not out 0, Trilok Nag b Pradhan 1; Extras (lb-7, nb-1) 8
Total (All out; 86 overs) 286
Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Jagadeesan, 4.2 overs), 2-46 (Vidyuth, 18.3), 3-111 (Athish, 36.5), 4-182 (Paul, 54.5), 5-183 (Ajitesh, 55.6), 6-234 (Siddarth, 67.6), 7-252 (Yadav, 73.5), 8-281 (Rajagopal, 83.1), 9-281 (Kishore, 84.3), 10-286 (Nag, 85.6)
Bowling: Rajesh Mohanty 18-6-51-3, Debabrata Pradhan 19-4-37-3, Sambit Baral 13-2-35-1, Govinda Poddar 16-0-85-2, Biplab Samantray 11-0-29-1, Badal Biswal 9-2-42-0.

ODISHA (1st innings): Swastik Samal lbw Yadav 1, Shantanu Mishra c Jagadeesan b Gurjapneet 6, Subhranshu Senapati (c) lbw Yadav 12, Govinda Poddar lbw Yadav 0, Biplab Samantray b Yadav 1, Anil Parida c Jagadeesan b Yadav 56, Rajesh Dhuper (wk) c Jagadeesan b Nag 8, Sambit Baral c Ajitesh b Nag 36, Debabrata Pradhan b Vidyuth 15, Rajesh Mohanty c Nag b Vidyuth 6, Badal Biswal not out 0; Extras (b-4, lb-2, w-1) 7
Total (All out; 51.2 overs) 148
Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Samal, 1.1 overs), 2-15 (Senapati, 5.3), 3-15 (Poddar, 5.5), 4-21 (Samantray, 9.2), 5-21 (Mishra, 10.2), 6-43 (Dhuper, 16.4), 7-100 (Baral, 36.2), 8-132 (Pradhan, 46.2), 9-138 (Mohanty, 48.5), 10-148 (Parida, 51.2)
Bowling: Gurjapneet Singh 15-3-37-1, Sonu Yadav 14.2-4-30-5, Trilok Nag 9-2-36-2, Sai Kishore 9-2-27-0, P Vidyuth 4-1-12-2.

TAMIL NADU (2nd innings): Athish SR lbw Poddar 88, Narayan Jagadeesan (wk) lbw Baral 4, P Vidyuth c Dhuper b Baral 8, Pradosh Paul c Mishra b Samantray 22, C Andre Siddarth c Dhuper b Samantray 1, Guruswamy Ajitesh lbw Biswal 49, Nidhish Rajagopal lbw Pradhan 16, Sonu Yadav b Biswal 74, Sai Kishore (c) c Samantray b Biswal 40, Gurjapneet Singh c Baral b Mishra 5, Trilok Nag not out 0; Extras (lb-6, nb-2, w-1) 9
Total (All out; 88.2 overs) 316
Fall of wickets: 1-17 (Jagadeesan, 11.4 overs), 2-31 (Vidyuth, 19.1), 3-76 (Paul, 33.2), 4-98 (Siddarth, 37.4), 5-154 (Athish SR, 54.1), 6-179 (Rajagopal, 61.6), 7-207 (Ajitesh, 70.3), 8-309 (Yadav, 84.2), 9-316 (Gurjapneet, 87.1), 10-316 (Kishore, 88.2)
Bowling: Rajesh Mohanty 14-4-50-0, Debabrata Pradhan 13-3-24-1, Sambit Baral 18-3-61-2, Govinda Poddar 14-0-63-1, Biplab Samantray 11-2-22-2, Badal Biswal 12.2-1-56-3, Shantanu Mishra 6-1-34-1.

ODISHA (2nd innings): Swastik Samal c Yadav b Kishore 10,    Shantanu Mishra lbw Yadav 0, Subhranshu Senapati (c) run out (Vidyuth) 55, Anil Parida c Ajitesh b Gurjapneet 98, Govinda Poddar b Vidyuth 27, Biplab Samantray b Vidyuth 1, Sambit Baral c Rajagopal b Kishore 1, Rajesh Dhuper (wk) c&b Rajagopal 7, Debabrata Pradhan b Rajagopal 0, Rajesh Mohanty c Jagadeesan b Yadav 30, Badal Biswal not out 0; Extras (b-13, lb-1, nb-1, w-3) 18
Total (All out; 83.5 overs) 247
Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Mishra, 3.2 overs), 2-47 (Samal, 15.3), 3-85 (Senapati, 28.1), 4-143 (Poddar, 44.2), 5-149 (Samantray, 50.5), 6-158 (Baral, 53.3), 7-186 (Dhuper, 67.6), 8-190 (Pradhan, 69.3), 9-239 (Parida, 82.3), 10-247 (Mohanty, 83.5)
Bowling: Gurjapneet Singh 13-4-48-1, Sonu Yadav 12.5-2-39-2, Trilok Nag 10-0-48-0, P Vidyuth 21-9-46-2, Sai Kishore 24-8-43-2, Nidhish Rajagopal 3-0-9-2.
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PHOTO: File picture of Odisha middle-order batter Anil Parida.