Mullick slams century in drawn tie

Baroda moved into the final of the Ranji Trophy cricket championship by virtue of their 288-run first innings lead, after the semi-final against Orissa ended in a draw, in Baroda, on Monday.

An unbeaten 131 by P Mullick and a solid 82 by P Jaychandran were the highlights of Orissa's second innings, as they scored 361 for five.

Baroda will meet Railways, who beat Punjab by five wickets at Mohali in the other semi-final, in the final, to be held at Baroda from April 19 to 23.

Earlier, Baroda, resuming at their overnight score of 409 for nine were all out without adding a run, in the first over of the day after medium pacer Sanjay Raul had Buch caught by Parida with his third delivery.

Orissa were set a target of 698 runs to win in 100 overs, including 15 mandatory overs, and they conceded the match after the sixth mandatory over was bowled.

Orissa started off badly, losing opener S Kumar to R Patel, with the score just nine. Skipper and India opener Shiv Sunder Das and Sanjay Raul put on 44 runs for the second wicket before Das was caught by wicketkeeper Nayan Mongia off Irfan for a well-made 53.

Mullick, Jayachandran and Parida entertained the crowd with some sensible batting. Parida first added 67 runs with Raul for the third wicket and then 73 runs for the fourth wicket with Mullick before being out for 71.

Mullick and Jaychandran too did not lose any opportunity in despatching the loose balls to the boundary.

When the mandatory overs began, the scoreboard read 288 for four, with both Mullick and Jaychandran going great guns.

After 6.4 mandatory overs, Orissa conceded the match to Baroda after Jaychandran fell. Mullick and Jaychandran added 73 runs off just 6.4 mandatory overs before they conceeded defeat.

Mullick's knock of 131 contained 15 fours and six sixes while that of Jaychandran's knock contained nine fours and four sixes.

Scoreboard

Baroda (1st innings): 568

Orissa (1st innings): 280

Baroda (2nd innings):

S Parab c and b Mohanty 56
C Williams c Parida b Raul 11
H Jadhav b Satpathy 78
J Martin c Kumar b Raul 33
T Arothe c Gopal b Barik 62
N Mongia c Gopal b Mullick 53
A Bhoite c Barik b Mohanty 45
R Patel c Gopal b Barik 15
V Buch c Parida b Raul 23
I Pathan (Jr) lbw Jaychandran 9
I Pathan (Sr) not out 8
Extras (B8, LB2, NB4, W2) 16
Total (all out in 114.3 overs) 409
Fall of wickets: 1-42, 2-82, 3-152, 4-240, 5-284, 6-321, 7-368, 8-368, 9-397.
Bowling: D Mohanty 16-9-33-2, A Barik 20-5-71-2, S Raul 23.3-6-70-3, P Jayachandran 16-5-46-1, J Das 7-4-30-0, S Satpathy 22-14-97-1, S S Das 1-0-5-0, P Mullick 9-1-47-1.

Orissa (2nd innings):

S S Das c Mongia b Pathan (Jr) 19
S Kumar lbw Patel 4
R R Parida c sub (Chandrakant) b Bhoite71
S Raul c Williams b Bhoite 36
P Mullick not out 131
P Jaychandran c Parab b Buch 82
Extras: (B9, LB2, NB1, W6) 18
Total: (for 5 wkts, 86.4 overs) 361
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-53, 3-120, 4-193, 5-361.
Bowling: R Patel 7-0-21-1, I Pathan (Sr) 5-2-19-0, V Buch 30.4-5-121-1, I Pathan (Jr) 10-2-26-1, A Bhoite 21-1-84-2, S Parab 6-0-46-0, H Jadhav 7-0-33-0.

Mail Cricket Editor