New Delhi: Odisha reovered well and dismissed three Delhi batsmen after getting bowled out for 143 on the first day of their Ranji Trophy group B match here on Friday.

Odisha after getting bowled out for a paltry score dismissed three Delhi batsmen for 62 to leave the contest open at the Ferozshah Kotla ground.

The visitors opting to bat first never looked comfortable against the Delhi bowlers and struggled against the duo of the Pawan Suyal and Sumit Narwal.

Suyal who bowled with precision and discipline accounted for three top order batsmen while Narwal complemented him well and took two wickets.

Suyal returned with figures of 3-43, while Narwal took 2-35. Such was the dominance of the hosts that only four of the opponent batsmen could reach double figure mark.

Odisha lost wicket at a regular interval and it looked like even 100 would be a difficult ask for them until the sixth wicket partnership between Haldar Das and Deepak Behera.

Both the batsmen negotiated the bowling well and stitched a cautious 51 runs. After Deepak was out for 28, opener Nataraj Behera who was forced to leave the field after getting hit by a ball joined Das but then it failed to bring any respite as he was out soon.

Behera top-scored for his team with 35.

If it was the pace duo who made life difficult for Odisha at the top of the innings then it was the debutant left arm spinner Manan Sharma who tormented the lower order. He extracted enough spin and bounce on the first day of the match to end with figures of 4-30.

It was an easy task at hand for Delhi with the bat and they were expected to build on the good start provided by their bowlers, but their top-order struggled against the disciplined bowling attack of Odisha.

Unmukt Chand was the first to depart after he edged one to wicket-keeper and was followed by Mohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan.

Sharma scored 16, while Dhawan could manage only 22.  

Basanta Mohanty was the pick of the bowlers and ended the day with figures of 2-21.

By Indian Sports News Network