M’laya toil as Odisha go past 500 on Day 2

Shillong, Jan 24: Meghalaya were made to toil in the field on a windy and dusty day as Odisha finished the second day of their Ranji Trophy 2024-25 Elite Group A match on 523/7 and with a lead of 325 runs, here on Friday.
Odisha began the day on 70 for no loss in response to Meghalaya’s 198 all out.
Swastik Samal (80 from 107 deliveries) and Shantanu Mishra (37 from 88) were dismissed by fast bowlers Akash Kumar Choudhary (2/112) and Md Nafees Siddique (3/78) respectively within the space of a few balls after adding another 50 to the total to leave Odisha on 120/2.
However, the visitors’ Govinda Poddar (121 from 157) and Sandeep Pattnaik (78 from 100) made 140 for the third wicket before Akash had the latter bowled. Earlier, Meghalaya vice captain Dippu Sangma had dropped Poddar’s catch when the Odisha batter was yet to open his account.
Poddar was later caught by guest professional Sumit Kumar on the long-off boundary after trying to hit left-arm orthodox spinner Wanlambok Nongkhlaw (1/61) for a six. The only Odisha player to actually hit a maximum was Rajesh Dhuper, who clobbered four sixes in his unbeaten 80 from 81 balls.
One other batter, Kartik Biswal, also managed a half-century, striking 68 from 85 deliveries before being dismissed by guest professional Anirudh B (1/42).
Nafees picked up two batters in consecutive balls to be on a hat-trick towards the end of the day but Odisha recovered from that blip and went past 500 before stumps. Overall, scoring was a little too easy, with plenty of singles and the odd boundary almost every over. In fact, Meghalaya only bowled four maidens in 108 overs and Odisha went at an impressive 4.84 runs an over.