India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant’s poor run with the bat, along with failures from Delhi’s senior batters, brought an end to the team’s unbeaten streak as Odisha registered a 79-run win in a fourth-round Group D match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy on Wednesday.With national selectors set to name the squad for the five-match ODI series against New Zealand in the first week of January, attention was firmly on Delhi captain Pant. However, the India batter managed only 24 as Delhi’s much-talked-about batting line-up collapsed, folding for 193 in 43.3 overs while chasing Odisha’s 272 for 8, a target that looked within reach.Delhi’s campaign this season has largely depended on one strong batting effort in each game. The absence of such a performance on Wednesday not only cost them the match but also their position at the top of the points table, a setback that could affect them later in the tournament.Odisha moved to the top of the table with 12 points and a strong net run rate. Delhi also have 12 points but slipped to fourth place, with Railways and Haryana moving above them on net run rate.This was the first time this season that Delhi failed to cross the 200-run mark. Earlier, the target had looked routine when Virat Kohli scored a century against Andhra in the opening match, and opener Priyansh Arya struck 78 against Saurashtra in the previous game.Pant, who had scores of 5, 70 and 22 earlier in the tournament, could add only 24 from 28 balls before being dismissed by pacer Debabrata Pradhan, who finished with figures of 3 for 28. Pradhan, along with young right-arm pacer Sambit Baral (3/34), played a key role in triggering Delhi’s collapse.Odisha’s total was anchored by captain Biplab Samantray, who scored 72 off 74 balls after the team lost three wickets before crossing 100. Contributions from the lower order added useful runs and tested the Delhi bowlers, including India players Navdeep Saini and Nitish Rana. Off-spinner Hrithik Shokeen was the pick of the Delhi bowlers with figures of 4 for 27 from his 10 overs.Delhi’s chase got off to a poor start as openers Priyansh Arya and Sarthak Ranjan were dismissed for single-digit scores, leaving the side at 6 for 2. Pant’s wicket reduced Delhi to 50 for 3 in the 11th over, and the situation soon worsened to 55 for 5.From there, a comeback was unlikely, though Harsh Tyagi (43) and Hrithik Shokeen (32) showed resistance and delayed the end with some determined batting.
