Jharkhand gain upper-hand, bowl out Odisha for 152

Spinners Shahbaz Nadeem (4/31) and Sunny Gupta (3/56) wreaked havoc as Jharkhand bundled out Odisha for 152 on the first day of the last group league encounter of the Ranji Trophy in Thumba, Thiruvananthapuram, on Thursday.

With both teams in the quarter-finals, the match is of academic interest as to whether Jharkhand can win outright and get the top position in the pool table which will enable them to meet group C second place holders Haryana.

Save openers Sandeep Pattnaik (43) and Ranjit Singh (20), none of the other batsmen could find their feet on a sluggish wicket where both left-arm spinner Nadeem and off-spinner

Sunny dominated the proceedings.

The ultra-defensive mindset scoring 46 for the opening stand in 27 overs also had an effect as four wickets fell for two runs leaving them reeling at 48 for 4.

Odisha never recovered from that collapse as they slumped to 120 for 9. It was the final wicket stand of 32 runs between Basant Mohanty (17) and Dhiraj Singh (8) that took them past 150-run mark.

Brief Scores: Odisha 152 (Sandeep Pattnaik 43, Ranjit Singh 20). Jharkhand 9 for no loss.

Image: Jharkhand's Shahbaz Nadeem 

Photograph: BCCI