Om Munde and Govinda Poddar struck half-centuries to help Odisha cruise to a six-wicket victory over Andhra in their Vijay Hazare Trophy match in Bengaluru on Monday.
Chasing Andhra’s modest 221, Odisha made 223 for four with 38 balls to spare. Munde made a 111-ball 91 with seven fours and Poddar scored 89 of 105 balls with nine hits to the fence. Odisha surged to the second place behind Delhi in Elite Group D. Andhra are in seventh position out of eight teams.
Odisha didn’t have the best of starts as they lost opener Swastik Samal, who was caught by wicketkeeper KS Bharat of Nitish Kumar Reddy, for a duck. Odisha then lost No.3 bat Sandeep Pattnaik who was snapped up by Bharat of PVSN Raju, for 19. At 31 for two, things were not looking that good for Odisha. But opener Munde and Poddar took the game away from Andhra with a super century partnership.
The duo added 166 for the third wicket in 196 balls with Govinda contributing 89 of those in 105 balls and Om scoring 74 of 91 balls. Govinda fell to PVSN Raju, caught by Bharat, but not before doing his job for the side. Om fell to Hemanth Reddy with 16 needed for victory.
There were no further hiccups as Aashirwad Swain (11) and skipper Biplab Samantaray (7) steered their side to victory.
Govinda, Samatray keep Andhra batters down
Earlier, Andhra got off to poor start with Ashwin Hebbar (2) failing with just three on the board. Bharat (32), S K Rasheed (20) and Ricky Bhui (18) got starts but failed to build on it. Rasheed had to retire not out when the score was 24. He then returned and was the fifth wicket to fall.
It was left to SDNV Prasad and Saurabh Kumar to prop up the Andhra score. Prasad scored a 64-ball 66 with six fours and two sixes and Kumar made a 26-ball 47 with three fours and four sixes.
Govinda took three for 36 and Samantray also claimed three for 36 for Odisha.
SCOREBOARD
Andhra: Ashwin Hebbar b Mohanty 2, KS Bharat c Poddar b Biswal 32, SK Rasheed c Pattnaik b Poddaar 20, Nitish Kumar Reddy b Baral 6, Ricky Bhui lbw Samantray 18, SDNV Prasad c Poddar b Pradhan 66, M Hemanth Kumar c Singh b Poddar 11, Kalidindi Raju c Pattnaik b Poddar 2, Tripurana Vijay b Samantray 6, Saurabh Kumar b Samantray 47, Satyanarayana Raju (not out) 1; Extras: (B4, W6) 10. Total: (All out in 49.2 overs) 221.
Fall of wickets: 1-3, 1-24 (Rashed retired no), 2-35, 3-64, 4-72, 5-114, 6-136, 7-144, 8-153, 9-174.
Bowling: Rajesh Mohanty 10-0-58-1, Debabrata Pradhan 10-1-34-1, Sambit Baral 8-1-31-1, Badal Biswal 6-2-22-1, Biplab Samantray 7.2-0-36-3, Govinda Poddar 8-1-36-3.
Odisha: Swastik Samal c Bharat b Nitish 0, Om Munde c KSN Raju b Hemanth 91, Sandeep Pattnaik c Bharat b PVSN Raju 19, Govinda Poddar c Bharat b PVSN Raju 89, Aashirwad Swain (not out) 11, Biplab Samantray (not out) 7; Extras: (W6) 6. Total: (for four wickets in 43.4 overs) 223.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-31, 3-197, 4-206.
Bowling: Nitish Reddy 8-1-37-1, PVSN Raju 9-0-49-2, Kalidindi Raju 6-0-31-0, Saurabh Kumar 10-0-35-0, Hemanth Reddy 5.4-0-35-1, Tripurana Vijay 5-0-36-0.
