Madhya Pradesh qualified for the Ranji Trophy Elite group by clinching a five-wicket victory over Orissa on the last day of the five-day Plate division semi-final in Cuttack on Thursday.
Capitalising on some insipid fielding by the hosts, the MP batsmen amassed 315 in the second innings for the loss of five wickets, to achieve victory about an hour into the last session at the Barabati stadium.
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They will meet Maharashtra, who beat Haryana in the other semi-final in Pune.
MP, who thus qualified to play in the Elite division, benefited from a 90-run knock (eight fours, four sixes) by Abbas Ali and useful scores from skipper Devendra Bundela (38) and Harbinder Sodhi (47) to reach the target.
Ali, however, had as many as three reprieves, being dropped by Pravanjan Mallick off the bowling of off-spinner Sanjay Satpathy and twice by wicket keeper Sukhwinder Singh. Skipper Sanjay Raul was the bowler to suffer on each occasion.
Resuming at the overnight score of 84 for 2 and needing 230 on the last day, the MP batsmen progressed purposefully though overnight batsman Naman Ojha (54) was caught by Rashmi
Parida off the bowling of medium fast bowler Deepak Mangaraj.
Sodhi and Bundela then piled 43 runs for the fourth wicket before the former was bowled by Mangaraj. His 47 contained seven boundaries.
As Orissa appeared to tighten the noose around MP's neck, Abbas Ali arrived on the scene with different ideas. He added 58 runs for the fifth wicket with Bundela and then hit up 82 runs with Nikhil Patwardhan (not out 14) for the unbroken sixth wicket stand to seal victory.
Mangaraj (two for 55) and Satpathy (two for 110) were the most successful bowlers for Orissa.
Scoreboard
Orissa (1st innings): 318
Madhya Pradesh (1st innings): 258
Orissa (2nd innings): 253
Madhya Pradesh (2nd innings): (overnight 84 for two)
Muddasar Pasha c S.Singh b D.Mohanty 14
Naman Ojha c R.R.Parida b D.Mangaraj 54
Sachin Dholpure b S.Satpathy 33
Harbinder Sodhi b D.Mangaraj 47
Devendra Bundela c S.Singh b S.Satpathy 38
Abbas Ali not out 90
Nikhil Patwardhan not out 14
Extras: (b8, lb7, nb7, w3) 25
Total: (for five wickets in 107 overs) 315
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-82, 3-132, 4-175, 5-233
Bowling: Debashis Mohanty 21-6-43-1, Deepak Mangraj 17-5-55-2, Srikanta Jena 22-5-56-0, Sanjay Satpathy 35-10-110-2, Sanjay Raul 12-0-36-0.
