da betsson： An absorbing tussle for the first innings lead highlighted thefinal day’s play between Orissa and Bihar at Cuttack on Thursday
25-Nov-1999An absorbing tussle for the first innings lead highlighted thefinal day’s play between Orissa and Bihar at Cuttack on Thursday.Bihar put up a game fight but finally fell four runs shortof Orissa’s total of 390.Bihar did not seem to have much chance of grabbing the firstinnings lead when they resumed at 259 for seven. Their task seemedto be even more difficult when overnight batsman S Prakash left at275. But the other overnight batsman AV Kumar, who had come in atNo 9 showed a lot of defiance. First with KVP Rao (16) he put on84 runs for the ninth wicket. AV Kumar dominated the partnershipand continued the good work with last man Dhiraj Kumar with whomhe stretched the score by 27 runs. Then with the Bihar score on386, Dhiraj Kumar was out for 15. AV Kumar was left unbeaten ona gallant 96. He batted 4-1/2 hours, faced 173 balls and hit11 fours. S Satpathy was the most successful bowler taking fourfor 65 from 35 overs. In the remaining time, Orissa openersSS Das (44) and Jai Chandra (39) had some good batting practicehitting 84 runs in 27 overs without being separated when stumpswere finally drawn.