Kolkata: Owing to their better net-run-rate, Odisha today progressed to the knockouts of the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day championship despite faltering in their last league match against Jharkhand, going down by 45 runs here.
In the East Zone leg of Vijay Hazare trophy, Bengal with 16 points from four matches finished at the top of the table. But there was a three-way tie between Odisha, Assam and Jharkhand, all of whom ended on eight points each.
Earlier, Assam had beaten Jharkhand, while Odisha had beaten Assam. And today Jharkhand defeated Odisha. However, Odisha, with a better run-rate compared to the other two, joined Bengal as the second team from East Zone to qualify.
Put in to bat, Jharkhand scored 280 for five in their allotted 50 overs and then managed to bundle out Odisha for 235 in 46.5 overs.
Jharkhand lost three early wickets to be at 73 for three before Kumar Deobrat (73) and Virat Singh (67) scored half-centuries and added 130 runs for the fourth wicket.
Thereafter Ishank Jaggi, who scored an unbeaten 47 off just 19 balls, along with Shahbaz Nadeem (23 not out) lifted the team to 280.
Odisha's Paresh Patel was the highest wicket-taker with figures of three for 52.
In reply, Odisha lost four wickets for 67 runs before Biplab Samantray (61), Arabind Singh (40) and Abhilash Mallick (50) hit crucial runs and put on a couple of important partnerships to take the team past 200-run mark.
But after the dismissal of these three, none of the lower order batsmen could sustain and Odisha fell short in the end.
For Jharkhand, Rahul Shukla (4/48) and Jaskaran Singh (3/53) shared seven wickets between them.
Brief scores:
Jharkhand: 280 for five in 50 overs (Kumar Deobrat 73, Virat Singh 67; Paresh Patel 3/52).
Odisha: 235 all out in 46.5 overs (Biplab Samantray 61, Abhilash Mallick 50; Rahul Shukla 4/48, Jaskaran Singh 3/53).
