Bengaluru: In a brilliant display of fast bowling on a helpful wicket, Karnataka pacer Abhimanyu Mithun destroyed the Odisha batting line-up but just when the visitors had them by the jugular, allowed Abhilash Mallick to counter-attack on an eventful day at the DRIEMS ground at Tangi, near Cuttack on Thursday.
On the opening day of the Group ‘A’ Ranji Trophy encounter, Karnataka skipper C.M. Gautam called right and had no hesitation to send the opposition in on a wicket tailor-made for the fast bowlers. Mithun got into the act striking repeatedly to reduce the visitors to 66 for seven before No.6 bat Mallick (98, 122, 16x4, 1x6) launched a blistering counter to pull the chestnuts out of the fire and guide Odisha to 226 before they were bowled out in 71.1 overs.
In reply, Karnataka openers Robin Uthappa and Mayank Agarwal batted out four overs while raising 22 but their temperament will be tested on the second morning.
Mallick’s splendid show can by gauged by the fact that the last three batsmen not only bailed out the hosts but fetched them an astonishing 160 runs.
Mallick, who smashed 16 boundaries and a six added 54 for the eighth with Alok Sahoo and 52 for the ninth with Basant Mohanty before No.11 Suryakant
Pradhan (34) swung his bat merrily at the visitors in a 28-ball cameo while adding 54 with Mohanty to frustrate the visitors.
It left Mithun, who bagged six of the first seven wickets to fall in spectacular fashion, stumped and Mallick’s attack also dented his figures somewhat later on.
Karnataka’s inability to finish off the proceedings again came back to haunt them as the Odisha lower order took away easy runs which could prove crucial on this track.
Having seen their batsmen crumble, Odisha will now pin their hopes on Mohanty, who has been in rich form and given the nature of the wicket, it will require immense application from the Karnataka batsmen to complement their bowlers’ efforts and push for their first victory of the season.
O Od di is sh ha a ( (1 1s st t i in nn ni in ng gs s) ): : G Rout lbw Mithun 20, B Pati c Gautam b Mithun 9, N Behera c Rahul b Sharath 8, G Podder c Gautam b Mithun 1, B Samantaray c Gautam b Mithun 0, A Malick lbw Kazi 98, S Sahoo c Gautam b Mithun 1, D Behera lbw Mithun 0, A Sahoo c Agarwal b Aravind 14, B Mohanty (not out) 19, S Pradhan lbw Kazi 34 34, E Ex xt tr ra as s ( (b b6 6, , l lb b1 10 0, , w w2 2, , n nb b4 4) ) 2 22 2 T To ot ta al l ( (a al ll l o ou ut t, , 7 71 1. .1 1 o ov ve er rs s) ) 2 22 26 6 F Fo oW W: : 1-17, 2-39, 3-45, 4-47, 5-56, 666, 7-66, 8-120, 9-172 B Bo ow wl li in ng g: : A Mithun 31.5-7-52-6, HS Sharath 21-3-58-1, A Kazi 6.1-1-382, S Aravind 18.1-7-54-1, M Pandey 2-2-0-0, K Kapoor 2-1-8-0 K Ka ar rn na at ta ak ka a ( (1 1s st t i in nn ni in ng gs s) ): : R Uthappa (batting) 6, M Agarwal (batting) 11.
T To ot ta al l ( (f fo or r n no o l lo os ss s; ; 4 4 o ov ve er rs s) ) 2 22 2 B Bo ow wl li in ng g: : B Mohanty 2-1-6-0, S Pradhan 2-0-11-0
RANJI ROUND-UP Group A At Mumbai (Vidarbha elected to field) MumbaiL 254 for 8 in 89 overs (Wasim Jaffer 133, Shardul Thakur 26; Sandeep Singh 3-29, Akshay Wakhare 2-65) vs Vidarbha At Rohtak (Haryana chose to bat): Haryana: 163 all out in 59.1 overs (Avi Bharot 65, Niti Saini 29; VRV Singh 5-38, Sandeep Sharma 3-61) vs Punjab: 50 for 3 in 19 overs At Jamshedpur (Jharkhand elected to bat): Jharkhand: 194 for 5 in 89.3 overs (Rame Nemat 78, Saurabh Tiwary 75 batting; Jasprit Bumrah 2-51) vs Gujarat Group B At Chennai (Saurashtra chose to field): Tamil Nadu: 268 for 2 in 80 overs (Abhinav Mukund 103 batting, Murali Vijay 62, S Badrinath 56, Baba Aparajith 40 batting) vs Saurashtra At Delhi (Services elected to field): Bengal: 242 for 3 in 90 overs (Arindam Das 139 batting, Rohan Banerjee 42) vs Services At Jaipur (Rajasthan chose to field): Uttar Pradesh: 226 all out in 85.3 overs (Parvinder Singh 46, Arish Alam 26; Aniket Chudhary 4-45, Deepak Chahar 3063, Pankaj Singh 2-48) vs Rajasthan 0 for 1 in 1.3 overs At Vadodara (Baroda chose to bat): 152 all out in 55.2 overs (Abhimanyu Chauhan 58, Saurabh Wakaskar 39, Aditya Waghmode 25; Jalaj Saxena 6-42, Ishwar Pandey 3-29) & 9/0 in 4 overs vs Madhya Pradesh: 60 all out in 27.2 overs (Ketul Patel 4-9, Yusuf Pathan 4-17)
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