Earlier, riding on a brilliant knock of 136 by Amrit Khatua, Odisha mustered a strong total of 297, in reply to 147 by Chhattisgarh. At one stage, Odisha were in a spot of bother, losing seven wickets for 168 runs. But Khatua and Krishna Palai steadied the innings with a partnership of 104 runs for the eighth wicket. Son of former Odisha allrounder Abinash Khatua, Amrit hit 21 boundaries, while Krishna was run out for 50, which included eight hits to the fence. R Taank was most successful bowler for Chhattisgarh, taking four wickets for 67 runs.

Put into bat by Odisha captain Satyajit Sabat, the Chhattisgarh boys struggled from the beginning, losing wickets in regular intervals. At the lunch break, they were in deep trouble with five wickets down for 66 runs on the board. The visitor failed to make any noticeable recovery after the break and were eventually bowled out for a low total. Odisha new-ball bowlers Umesh Yadav and Preet Singh Chohan put up impressive performance, bagging four and two wickets respectively.

SCOREBOARD
CHHATTISGARH (1st innings): S Soni c Mishra b Das 39, Vedvyas Sahu lbw Yadav 2, P Yadav b Yadav 5, Sanjeet Desai c Malla b Chohan 1, Yash Thakur lbw Yadav 18, Arpit Shrivastava b Yadav 6, Ashish Pandey c Mishra b Sabat 21, A Rao c Khatua b Sabat 6, V N S Tripathi b Chohan 12, R Taank b Palai 18, Sahil Sheikh (not out) 8; Extras (nb-4, w-1, b-5, lb-1) 11
Total (All out; 59.2 overs) 147
Fall of wickets: 1-11 (V Sahu, 3.4 ov), 2-27 (P Yadav, 9.3 ov), 3-28 (S Desai, 10.2 ov), 4-51 (S Soni, 20.2 ov), 5-60 (A Shrivastava, 30.5 ov), 6-91 (Y Thakur, 38.6 ov), 7-107 (A Pandey, 43.4 ov), 8-119 (A Rao, 48.5 ov), 9-123 (V Tripathi, 53.5 ov), 10-147 (R Taank, 59.2 ov)
Bowling: Preet Singh Chohan 16-9-36-2, Umesh Yadav 21-5-64-4, Sanjay Das 12-4-26-1, Satyajit Sabat 10-5-15-2, Krishna Palai 0.2-0-0-1

ODISHA (1st Innings): Swastik Samal b Taank 3, Raghunath Malla (run out) 38, Amrit Khatua c Desai b Taank 136, Aakash Nayak c Pandey b Rao 12, Satyajit Sabat c Shrivastava b Taank 5, Anurag Kanojia c Sahu b Tripathi 4, Girija Mishra c Thakur b Pandey 22, Sanjay Das lbw Taank 1, Krishna Palai (run out) 50, Umesh Yadav b Sheikh 9, Preet Singh Chohan (not out) 0; Extras (nb-5, w-1, b-9, lb-2) 17
Total (All out; 119.2 overs) 297
Fall of wickets: 1-18 (S Samal, 5.3 ov), 2-85 (R Malla, 36.6 ov), 3-107 (A Nayak, 49.5 ov), 4-112 (S Sabat, 52.6 ov), 5-131 (A Kanojia, 63.1 ov), 6-167 (G Mishra, 73.3 ov), 7-168 (S Das, 74.5 ov), 8-272 (K Palai, 110.6 ov), 9-289 (A Khatua, 116.3 ov), 10-297 (U Yadav, 119.2 ov)
Bowling: V N S Tripathi 25-7-76-1, A Rao 16-5-40-1, R Taank 36-17-67-4, Arpit Shrivastava 1-0-6-0, Sahil Sheikh 19.2-7-55-1, Ashish Pandey 12-2-32-1, P Yadav 2-1-1-0, Sanjeet Desai 8-3-9-0

CHHATTISGARH (2nd innings): S Soni c Mishra b Chohan 0, Vedvyas Sahu b Yadav 1, Arpit Shrivastava b Chohan 1, Sanjeet Desai lbw Chohan 0, P Yadav c Khatua b Das 40, Yash Thakur lbw Das 6, Ashish Pandey (not out) 25, A Rao b Chohan 12, V Tripathi b Chohan 0, R Taank c Das b Chohan 5, Sahil Sheikh b Chohan 0; Extras (b-1, lb-11) 12
Total (All out; 44.2 overs) 102
Fall of wickets: 1-0 (S Soni, 0.4 ov), 2-2 (A Shrivastava, 4.5 ov), 3-2 (S Desai, 4.6 ov), 4-2 (V Sahu, 5.3 ov), 5-38 (Y Thakur, 13.5 ov), 6-53 (P Yadav, 17.6 ov), 7-79 (A Rao, 33.1 ov), 8-79 (V Tripathi, 37.2 ov), 9-102 (R Taank, 44.1 ov), 10-102 (S Sheikh, 44.2 ov)
Bowling: Preet Singh Chohan 11.2-4-28-7, Umesh Yadav 13-7-19-1, Sanjay Das 6-3-17-2, Krishna Palai 8-4-22-0, Satyajit Sabat 6-4-4-0
------------------------------------------------------------------ PHOTOS ------------------------------------------------------------------
TOP: File photo of pace bowler Preet Kanwar Singh Chohan
RIGHT: File photo of top-order batsman Amrit Khatua