Orissa keep pace after Rawat century

“We were lucky that the Orissa bowlers did not bowl in the right areas and that the field was spread out. That way any mistakes we made early on did not cost us,” said Rawat after the match. While the singles were picked off regularly,the pair forced the issue when the opportunity arose. Rawat scored 12 fours while Yadav had nine hits to the fence.

Yadav ultimately perished in the second over after lunch with the score on 311,giving Biplab Samantray his third wicket of the innings. Rawat pressed on,but soon after reaching his century suffered a lapse in concentration that proved to be his last. The centurion set off for a single from the non-striker end even as Sharma pushed the ball straight to the cover fielder. A yes-no left Rawat stranded and his attempt to make his way back to his crease was foiled by a direct hit from Govind Poddar. Once the set batsman was out,what remained of the Railways line-up threatened to come apart. It took some lusty hitting by Sharma (32),who threw his bat around for four boundaries and a six,to give his side some late thrust.

In reply,Orissa openers Subhrajit Sahoo (60 batting,95 balls,9×4) and Paresh Patel (41 batting,105 balls,5×4,1×6) batted steadily to end the day without any setbacks. Much like Orissa’s bowling at the start of the day,Railways failed to keep the ball in the right areas or build any sort of pressure. Despite bowling from an end that enabled him to make use of the rough created by the pacemen pounding in from the Pavillion end,Murali Kartik failed to trouble the batsmen consistently.

Railways were also guilty of letting opportunities slip in the field. When Sahoo mistimed a long hop bowled by leg spinner Karan Sharma straight to Anureet Singh at mid-wicket,the fielder failed to latch on to the ball which was travelling fast and low.

While the Orissa batsmen left the field to cheers from their team-mates,there were enough in the pitch to keep Railways interested.

“The game is still very much in the balance. The wicket is turning square and the ball is keeping low on occasion. If a wicket falls,it will not take too much time for that to turn into a collapse,” said Rawat.

Brief Scores: Railways 379 in 144.4 overs (Mahesh Rawat 103,Shiva Kant Shukla 97,Ashish Yadav 68,Bipalb Samantray 3/62). Orissa 108/0 (Subhrajit Sahoo 60 batting,Paresh Patel 41 batting)