Odisha sniff outright win against Haryana

Rohtak:  Odisha closed in on an outright victory against Haryana after polishing off the top-order of the hosts in the second innings as well in their Group B Ranji Trophy match on Sunday.

Odisha took a 153-run first innings lead after scoring 219 and then reduced Haryana to 165 for five in at the end of the second day's play at the Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium.

Basant Mohanty and Alom Mangaraj took two wickets apiece to rattle the hosts top-order.

Haryana have a 12-run lead with five wickets remaining and Odisha have two full days to force a win. Abhimanyu Khod (56) and skipper Amit Mishra (12) will resume the Haryana innings on Monday.

At start of the day Odisha resumed their first innings at 177 for six and were all out for 219. Mohit Sharma (5/49) complted a five-wicket haul.

Lagnajit Samal, overnight 20, scored 43 to help Odisha take a good first innings lead.

Medium pacer Ashish Hooda took three of the four Odisha wickets to fall as he first dismissed overnight batsman Halhadar Das (6) and then scalped Mangaraj Singh (4) and Dhiraj Raj (1).

For Haryana their second innings started poorly as they lost the openers --  Nitin Saini (2) and Rahul Dewan (5) within the first five overs.

Sunny Singh (36) steadied the ship before being caught by Natraj Behera off Mangaraj.

Brief Scores:

Haryana: 66 and 165 for 5 in 68 overs (A Khod 56 batting, Sunny Singh 36; B Mohanty 2/21).

Odisha: 209 all out in 74 overs. (N Begera 44, L Samal 43;M Sharma 5/49).