Vijay Hazare Trophy: Odisha beat Punjab by 69 runs

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Mar 6:

Powered by captain Govinda Poddar’s magnificient century and Dhiraj Singh’s 5-wicket haul, Odisha defeated mighty Punjab by 69 runs in a group stage match of Vijay Hazare Trophy played at Palam A Stadium in Delhi today.

Winning the toss and opting to bat first, Odisha scored 240 losing all wickets in 49.5 overs, thanks to skipper Govinda Poddar’s brilliant 120 off 119 balls and Biplab Samantray’s 48 off 61 balls.

Chasing 241, Punjab suffered early jolt losing opener Mandeep Singh at the score of 5 on the fifth ball of the innings.

Shubman Gill and Anmolpreet Singh did innings restoration work by scoring 41 and 58, respectively but failed to ensure victory for their team.

Star batsman Yuvraj Singh also couldn’t do much as the southpaw was bowled by Dhiraj Singh after scoring mere 8 runs.

Dhiraj Singh was the match winner for Odisha as he went on to pick up 5 wickets for 49 runs in 10 overs with a maiden.

Dhiraj was well supported by Debabrata Pradhan and Rajkishan Patel who grabbed 2 and 3 wickets, respectively.

Punjab was bowled out for 171 in 30 overs.

With the win, Odisha ended up at 5th spot in Group A, which comprises of 7 teams, pocketing 8 points with 2 wins and 4 defeats.