Ranji matches abandoned in Orissa

Bhubaneswar, Feb 13 (UNI) Heavy rains played spoilsport in the ongoing one-day Ranji trophy tournament here and at Cuttack today forcing sharing of points between the teams.

Bengal were well placed in their match with Asom at Barbati Stadium at Cuttack when rains stop play. The Bengal team had bowled out Asom for a meager 142, thanks to a fine spell by Laxmi Ratan Shukla who claimed 4 for 13 runs.

Rohan Gavaskar and S S Paul claimed two wickets each.

Parvez Aziz was the lone Asom batsmen to show some resistance scoring 44 while five Asom batsmen could not reach the double figure but the run chase for Bengal could not begin with heavy showers continuing right through the second session.

The match was abandoned and both teams were awarded two points each.

In the Infosys ground here hosts Orissa could not bat after they had dismissed Tripura for 219 runs. A brilliant unbeaten 101 by Rajesh Banik had helped Tripura post a decent target. For the hosts Debashis Mohanty claimed 3 wickets for 34 runs while Pritamjit Das, Sanjaya Satpathy and Niranjan Behera took two wickets each.

Heavy rains that lashed the state capital forced the organisers to declare the match abandoned and both Tripura and Orissa were awarded two points each.

UNI