Merai, Kalaria help Gujarat take control against Odisha

Cuttack: Pacer Rush Kalaria ripped through the Odisha top-order batting line-up with a superb bowling spell to put Gujarat in control of their Ranji Trophy cricket match on the third day here.

Kalaria produced bowling figures of four wickets for 20 runs to reduce Odisha to 143 for five in their second innings at the end of third day.

But a brilliant counter-attacking innings from Abhilash Mallick -- 90 not out from just 82 balls -- rescued the Odisha innings from disaster. Mallick hit 16 fours and two sixes in a superb batting exhibition. Govinda Podder was giving him company on 36 not out, which he made from 114 balls.

Odisha still trail by four runs overall with just five second innings wickets in hand.

Kalaria claimed the wickets of Tukuna Sahoo (0), Niranjan Behera (0), Natraj Behera (8) and Biplab Samantray (0) while Kushang Patel got the fifth Odisha wicket that fell today, that of Anurag Sarangi (0).

Kalaria has so far taken 10 wickets from this match, having grabbed six Odisha wickets in the home team's first innings.

Earlier in the day, Bhargav Merai completed his century after resuming the day at the individual score of 87 to play a major part in Gujarat scoring 372 all out in their first innings. Odisha had scored 225 all out in their first innings.

Merai added another 47 runs today to be the ninth and last man out for Gujarat for 134. Y Venugopal Rao did not turn up for batting. Merai hit 17 fours in his 328-ball innings which lasted eight hours.

Akshar Patel (50) was the other notable contributor for Gujarat.

For Odisha, Suryakant Pradhan and Deepak Behera grabbed three wickets each while Biplab Samantray and Basant Mohanty took two and one wicket respectively.

Brief Scores:

Odisha: 225 and 143 for 5 in 40 overs (Abhilash Mallick 90 not out; Rash Kalaria 4/20).

Gujarat 1st Innings: 372 all out in 123.3 overs (Bhargav Merai 134, Akshar Patel 50; Suryakant Pradhan 3/59, DEepak Behera 3/80).