Prerit, Rohit lead Punjab U-19 to a massive win

Tribune News Service 

Chandigarh, December 10

Punjab bowlers Prerit Dutta (4/30) and Rohit Kumar (3/37) helped their side beat Odisha by an innings and 25-run in the Cooch Behar Trophy here today. Trailing by 297 runs, and resuming at an overnight 40/2, Odisha were bundled out for 172 runs.

Overnight unbeaten Pritam Jena could add only five runs to his individual score before he was cleaned up by Rahul on 10. Reduced to 52/3, Aakash Nayak joined Manas Ranjan Nayak in the middle and the two pushed the total to 93 runs before Aakash (22 off 39 balls) was bowled by Dutta. Jyoti R Behera and Manas added 26 runs for the next wicket. Both the batsmen were dismissed by Rohit when the team’s total was 96. Behera failed to open his account while Manas scored 41 off 125 balls, including six boundaries. 

Their departure brought skipper Raghunath Malla and Shekhar Majhi to the crease.  The duo took the total to the 150-run mark, and both were looking good. Dutta, however, again came up with a fine effort to dismiss Malla for 34 off 81 balls, including seven boundaries. In the same over, Dutta claimed Majhi (14 off 64 balls), too, to leave the visitors struggling at 156/8. Rohit then accounted for Bisawajit Mallick (2), and Dutta claimed Rajesh (12) to bowl out Odisha for 172.While Dutta and Rohit picked up most of the wickets, Deepin,  Rahul and Mandeep took one wicket  each.