Jaipur, Dec 24 (IANS) Odisha staged a comeback of sorts to find themselves at a respectable 184/8 at stumps on the second day of their Ranji Trophy cricket quarter-final tie against Gujarat here on Saturday.
All-rounder Deepak Behera (34 not out) and tailender Basant Mohanty (4 not out) were at the crease, as Odisha still trailed by 79 runs, when the bails were dislodged for the day at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here.
Earlier, resuming the day at 197/6, Gujarat rode on a 154-run seventh wicket stand between the overnight batsmen Chirag Gandhi (81) and Rush Kalaria (73) to post 263 in their first innings.
Mehul Patel's quickfire 38-ball 28 also helped Gujarat to go past the 250-run mark as he along with tailender Hardik Patel added another 24 important runs.
For Odisha, veteran pacer Basant Mohanty stood out with five wickets while Behera took three scalps.
In response, Odisha were off to a nightmarish start losing their first wicket with just 1 run on the board, before opener Sandeep Pattnaik (43) and one down Subhranshu Senapati (30) forged a 82-run stand for the second wicket to take the team to 83/1.
But thereafter, India pacer Jasprit Bumrah triggered a dramatic collapse of the Odisha side with four wickets to reduce them to 101/7. Kalaria also took two wickets to make things worse for the opposition.
However, the lower order duo of Behera (34 not out) and Suryakant Pradhan (47) took the fight to the Gujarati side with a 72-run eighth-wicket stand as Odisha ended the day on 184/8.
Brief Scores: Gujarat 263 (Chirag Gandhi 81, Rush Kalaria 73, Basant Mohant 5/68) vs Odisha 184/8 (Suryakant Pradhan 47, Sandeep Pattnaik 43, Jasprit Bumrah 4/33, Rush Kalaria 2/35)
