In their second game of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy cricket tournament, Odisha ran over a harder opponent after destroying a lower-ranked Sikkim in their first encounter.
The team led by Abhishek Raut was defeated by Tamil Nadu in the Elite Group-E T20 match on Wednesday in Lucknow by a margin of five wickets.
Subhranshu Senapati (65, 53b, 4×4, 3×6) was the top scorer for Odisha, who chose to bat first. Odisha scored a competitive 141 for the loss of three wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Anshuman Rath provided him with excellent support (51, 40b, 6×4, 1×6). Subhranshu and Anshuman stabilised Odisha’s ship with a valuable partnership of 97 runs after the early dismissal of opener Aasirwad Swain (2). But once both left in short succession, the Odisha fighters were unable to increase their rate of scoring. The chief wrecker for Tamil Nadu was T Natrajan (as of 2/30).
After a strong start from opener N Jagadeesan, Tamil Nadu’s captain Baba Aparajith (63 no, 42b, 7×4) led the run chase (35, 29b, 3×4, 1×6). Tamil Nadu outperformed.
After a strong start from opener N Jagadeesan, Tamil Nadu’s captain Baba Aparajith (63 no, 42b, 7×4) took the lead in the run chase (35, 29b, 3×4, 1×6). With 1.1 overs remaining and five wickets in hand, Tamil Nadu achieved the goal. Although they bowled well, Sameer Mohanty (2/7) and Mushtaq Beg (2/25) were not assisted by other bowlers.
Briefly stated, Odisha (141/3) was defeated by Tamil Nadu (143/5) (Baba Aparajith, 63 not out, N Jagadeesan, 35, and Sameer Mohanty, 2/7) by five wickets.
Prasanta Patnaik