Orissa, served well by most of their top order batsmen, were in a position of considerable strength at stumps on the second day of their East Zone Ranji Trophy league match against Assam at the Tinsukia District Sports Association stadium on Friday. Replying to Assam's first innings total of 167, Orissa were 302 for seven off 77.2 overs at stumps.

The second day's play started only at 12.25 pm due to the wet condition of the pitch following overnight rain. Resuming at 99 for two, Orissa enjoyed a fruitful day. First, RR Parida (75) and Sanjay Satpathy (41) added 75 runs for the third wicket off 16 overs. Veteran left arm spinner Sunil Subramaniam broke the stand by having Satpathy leg before. Satpathy faced just 39 balls and hit six fours. Parida fell a little later. He faced 151 balls and hit six fours and a six. Mullick (5) did not last long and suddenly Orissa had slumped to 198 for five.

However, Sanjay Roul (45) and P Jaychandra (13) initiated a recovery process by adding 37 runs for the sixth wicket off 12 overs. Roul, who made a valuable 45, was seventh out at 264. He faced 66 balls and hit five boundaries. The rest of the day belonged to Gautam Gopal who cracked an unbeaten 53 off just 36 balls with nine fours and two sixes. He dominated an unbroken eighth wicket partnership of 38 runs off 8.1 overs with Debasish Mohanty (7) to push the Orissa score past the 300 mark by close. Ganesh Kumar was the pick of the bowlers with three for 64 off 17 overs while Subramaniam picked up two for 90 off 18 overs.

© CricInfo