An absorbing tussle for the first innings lead highlighted the final day's play between Orissa and Bihar at Cuttack on Thursday. Bihar put up a game fight but finally fell four runs short of Orissa's total of 390.

Bihar did not seem to have much chance of grabbing the first innings lead when they resumed at 259 for seven. Their task seemed to be even more difficult when overnight batsman S Prakash left at 275. But the other overnight batsman AV Kumar, who had come in at No 9 showed a lot of defiance. First with KVP Rao (16) he put on 84 runs for the ninth wicket. AV Kumar dominated the partnership and continued the good work with last man Dhiraj Kumar with whom he stretched the score by 27 runs. Then with the Bihar score on 386, Dhiraj Kumar was out for 15. AV Kumar was left unbeaten on a gallant 96. He batted 4-1/2 hours, faced 173 balls and hit 11 fours. S Satpathy was the most successful bowler taking four for 65 from 35 overs. In the remaining time, Orissa openers SS Das (44) and Jai Chandra (39) had some good batting practice hitting 84 runs in 27 overs without being separated when stumps were finally drawn.

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