Ranji Trophy: Odisha take on Uttar Pradesh with just honour at stake

With their slimmest hope of making it to the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals in the 2022-23 season up in smoke, Odisha have only pride to play for when they take on Uttar Pradesh in their penultimate round fixture away in Meerut from Tuesday.
In Group A, Odisha are currently just above bottom spooners Nagaland. With only seven points from five games so far, Odisha are out of the race for two knockout berths on offer from each group.
The hosts aren’t any better off.Having nine points from as many games, Uttar Pradesh sit just a spot above Odisha on the eight-team group table. Mathematically, they still have a chance of making the next round but that would need more than one miracle to go in their favour in the remaining two rounds of matches in the group.
While Odisha have been consistently playing below par this season, UP have had some roller coaster ride starting with a loss against Bengal, followed by a huge win over Nagaland, a defeat to Baroda and then two draws in a row. Odisha, on the other hand, have lost two matches and drawn three.
Odisha will go into the game on the back of a narrow loss against Himachal Pradesh. They were on course to victory on the last day only to go down by three wickets in a thrilling finish. The defeat all but sealed Odisha’s fate this Ranji season.
Hoping to salvage pride before taking on group leaders Bengal in their last encounter, the Odisha selectors have left out Anshuman Rath from the squad that travelled to Meerut for the clash at Victoria Park Stadium.
The 25-year-old batter, playing his first Ranji Trophy game of the season against Himachal last week, could manage scores of 3 and 12 coming in at No. 3.
The Subhranshu Senapati-led side may go for some more changes in the playing XI for the upcoming match as none of the players have performed consistently during the campaign barring few good individual performances, occasionally. Young wicketkeeper-batter Rajesh Dhuper may get the nod ahead of experienced Sujit Lenka as the latter failed to come up with desired performances.