Hosts Orissa will be desperate for a much-awaited victory when they take on better-placed Punjab in their four-day Group-A Ranji Trophy Super League match at the newly-constructed East Coast Railway ground in Bhubaneswar tomorrow. Orissa are currently placed seventh in the eight-team Super League table with four points from three matches. They opened their campaign with a draw against Hyderabad but suffered a humiliating innings defeat in the next outing against Saurashtra. In the third match against Rajasthan, which ended in a draw, Orissa secured three points by virtue of taking a slender first innings lead. Compared to Orissa, Punjab are better placed (fourth) in the table, having garnered seven points from one win (vs Rajasthan) and two draws (vs Delhi and Saurashtra). This will be the fifth head-to-head clash between Orissa and Punjab in Ranji Trophy. Of the previous four, Punjab have won two, while the rest two have ended in draws. Punjab came from behind to thrash Orissa by seven wickets when the two sides last met at Mohali in 2007-08. Notwithstanding the absence of Yuvraj Singh, Punjab seemed to be a balanced side. Opener Sunny Sohal, 20, has been brilliant this season, hitting a century in each of the three matches so far. Among other batsmen, Ravi Inder Singh, Uday Kaul, Ankur Kakkar and Taruwar Kohli have also come up with good knocks. Speedster Gagandeep Singh has lived upto his reputation as the spearhead of Punjab`s bowling attack with nine wickets from three matches. He has a strong new-ball partner in international Manpreet Singh Gony. In the spin department, left-arm orthodox bowlers Ankur Kakkar, Varun Khanna and offie Charanjit Singh have performed well. On the other hand, Orissa`s performance in the past three match has been very much disappointing despite the fact that Venkatpathy Raju is guiding them as the chief coach. None of the batsmen have scored a hundred so far. Captain Shiv Sundar Das is the only one to have showed consistency, compiling 313 runs in five innings. The 31-year-old former India opener needs 34 runs against Punjab to complete 10,000 runs in his first class career. In the bowling department, left-arm spinner Dhiraj Singh, however, has emerged as a bright hope for Orissa, bagging seven wickets in his debut match against Rajasthan. The team needs more such individual performances in all three segments of the game in order to improve its position in the league table. After two days of practice, both the sides have familiarised themselves with the new ground. But neither Das nor Punjab skipper Pankaj Dharmani has any idea as to how the virgin pitch would behave. With this match, the capital city of Orissa will be making a belated debut in first class cricket. Though the city produced two Test cricketers in Debasis Mohanty and Shiv Sundar Das, it never hosted a Ranji Trophy match earlier. It`s also an irony that Bhubaneswar would be the 14th centre in the state to host a Ranji match after smaller places like Talcher, Paradip and Angul. TEAMS (from) ORISSA: Shiv Sundar Das (capt), Bikash Pati, Niranjan Behera, Paresh Patel, Pravanjan mullick, P Jayachandra, Haladhar Das (wk), Subit Biswal, Debasis Mohanty, Basant Mohanty, Pritamjeet Das, Sukanta Khatua, Dhiraj Singh, Sameer Mohanty. PUNJAB: Pankaj Dharmani (capt), Charanjit Singh, Ravi Inder Singh, Uday Kaul, Varun Khanna, Sarabjit ladda, Siddharth Kaul, Gagandeep Singh, Karan Goel, M S Gony, Jaskaran Singh, Ankur Kakkar, Taruwar Kohli, Ravneet Ricky, Sunny Sohal.