Odisha suffered a close loss against Tamil Nadu in a close encounter in their second Elite Group-A match of the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy tournament at Lucknow on Friday. After winning the toss, Odisha opted to bat first, and their bowlers restricted Tamil Nadu at 165 for the loss of five wickets with all-rounder Abhishek Raut (3/30) was the pick of the bowlers. Jayanta Behera (1/25) supported Raut well. Other bowlers failed to make an impact and gave away too many runs.

Baba Aparajith (44 n o, 28b, 3×4, 2×6) hit a blistering knock playing shots all round the park making lives difficult for Odisha bowlers. N Jagadeesan (37, 38b, 2×4), B Sai Sudharsan (28, 25b, 3×4) and M Mohammed (27 n o, 1×4, 2×6) played as second fiddles around Aparajith to set a challenging total for their team

In reply, Odisha started badly as they lost both the openers with just 31 runs on the board. However, batting mainstay Subhransu Senapati (67, 47b, 3×4, 3×6) stitched together a 62-run partnership with Govind Poddar before veteran Poddar ran himself out.

Abhishek Yadav (0, 1b) soon went to the pavilion with a golden duck putting Odisha in deep trouble. However, Abhishek Raut (38, 21b, 4×4, 1×6) played a cameo to steady the ship again. But, both Raut and Senapati departed in quick succession when things were looking completely in control. Sarbeswar Mohanty (3, 4b) and Bikash Rout (1, 2b) tried their best, but Odisha could manage only 164 runs for the loss of six wickets in their stipulated overs, suffering a narrow 1-run loss.

In their first match of the tournament, Odisha had edged out Goa by four wickets. However, in the last over of the chase, there was a controversial boundary call that wasn’t given a four. Odisha’s head coach, Wasim Jaffer wasn’t happy with teh umpiring decision and he expressed his disappointment on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/wasimjaffer14/status/1456611870861787140?s=21

Here is the video of the umpiring calls:

https://twitter.com/mscmedia2/status/1456625737176281090?s=20