Orissa win a thriller

Chasing a target of 214, Orissa barely scraped through in their Ranji one-day match against Bengal at Cuttack on Thursday.

Winning the toss, Bengal posted 213 on the board. Their top-scorer was Soumen Singh, who made an unbeaten 53 off 58, with five fours. He was given good company by the tail before Debashish Mohanty took four wickets with the addition of just 21 runs to the team score. Mohanty finished with figures of 9.5-1-30-4.

Riding on a 71 off 100 balls from skipper Sanjay Raul and a 68 from Pravanjan Mullick, Orissa made the total with just a ball to spare. Saurashish Lahiri caused a few hiccups as he scythed through the lower middle-order to finish with 5-43. Only some gritty batting from wicket-keeper G Gopal (20 not out off 17 balls) enabled Orissa to reach their target.