NADAUN: Prashant Chopra completed his 12th first-class century as the Himachal Pradesh opener helped the hosts take the first-innings lead in their Ranji Trophy Group A match against Odisha on Wednesday.
The dependable opener's 198-ball 138 was the highlight of the day as Himachal quickly got on with the task of erasing the opponents' first-innings lead.
Beginning the day at 91/2 in reply to Odisha's first-innings total of 191, Himachal had only Prashant to thank for guiding them to a modest 258 even as the visitors' seam bowler Sunil Roul wreaked havoc.
The 24-year-old Roul created a lot of hurdles for the hosts with his nagging line and length.
But Prashant, starting from where he had left off on Tuesday at 61, kept accumulating runs and punished any loose deliveries by dispatching them for boundaries. The opener ended up with 18 fours and a six with a healthy strike rate of almost 70 to boot.
The seasoned batter, in the process, completed his 4,000 first-class runs even as Roul continued to chip away, returning figures of 6/62.
Prashant finally fell victim to a Roul delivery, trapped in front of the wicket. His dismissal opened the floodgates as none of the Himachal batters could play the wily bowler with confidence.
Himachal wicketkeeper-batter Praveen Thakur and Mayank Dagar departed without opening their account, while tail-enders Vaibhav Arora and Kanwar Abhinay too fell cheaply. Soon, the hosts' batting wound up at 258 in 76.5 overs.
At stumps on day two, Odisha were 29 without loss in 13 overs with Anurag Sarangi and Shantanu Mishra unbeaten on 14 and 15 respectively.
Brief scores:
At Nadaun: Odisha 191 and 29 for no loss in 13 overs vs Himachal Pradesh 258 in 76.5 overs (Prashant Chopra 138, Amit Kumar 46; Sunil Roul 6/62).
