Playing only for pride after not being in contention for making it to the knockout stage of the country's premier domestic tournament, Odisha continued their story of the season on Day 1 of their penultimate Ranji Trophy encounter.
Odisha captain Subhranshu Senapati opted to bat first after winning the toss against his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Karan Sharma, but his top-order batters — including the skipper himself — failed him before opener Shantanu Mishra (107 batting off 218 balls, 14x4) and a gritty middle order bailed the visitors out to save them from ignominy.
In the Group A encounter, the visitors slumped to 20 for four wickets inside 11 overs before Mishra's unbeaten century and wicketkeeper-batter Rajesh Dhuper's fighting half-century helped them to arrest the slide for a respectable 222 for five from 82 overs at the end of day's play on Tuesday.
No. 7 batter Abhishek Raut was giving Mishra able support when the stumps were drawn on the first day of the game. Raut is batting on 43 after playing 80 balls in his patient knock.
Mishra was Odisha performer of the day as he paced his innings to perfection and played the anchor's role to guide the visiting team out of any further danger. Odisha lost first two wickets in the form of opener Anurag Sarangi (caught behind, 3 runs off 8 balls) and captain Senapati (bowled, duck off 10 balls) to medium pacer Kunal Yadav to go down to 5/2 in 5.1 overs.
Off-spinner Karthikeya Jaiswal was brought into action early, and he proved his skipper right by giving double breakthrough in the 11th over. First he bowled Kartik Biswal (4 off 9 balls) and then induced a catch off experienced Govinda Poddar who played only two deliveries without scoring any run.
Then Mishra and Dhuper (62 off 165 balls, 9x4) hold fort for Odisha as they reached 142/4 at tea from being four down inside first session. Left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar brought an end to Dhuper's vigilant knock but Raut joined Mishra to see there's no further damage to the innings.
Brief scores: Odisha 222/5 in 82 overs (S Mishra 107 batting, R Dhuper 62, A Raut 43 batting) vs Uttar Pradesh. Match to continue.
