A job well begun is a job half done. True to the old saying, Karnataka, in chase of their maiden win in the Ranji Trophy season, received a major fillip as they skittled Odisha for 202 on the opening day of their Elite Group ‘B’ fixture here on Saturday.

New pace sensation H.S.Sharath (2-47) inflicted two early blows and skipper Vinay Kumar (3-31) in the company of third pacer S.L. Akshay (4-40) spurred the collapse late in the day to finish off the Odisha innings inside 80 overs before Karnataka safely negotiated the remaining time to reach 16/0 at stumps.

After winning a good toss, Vinay opted to make maximum use of the ‘quick’ M. Chinnaswamy Stadium wicket and decided to unleash the pace battery right away under a cloudy sky.

Teenager Sharath justified the decision with a breakthrough with his first legal ball of the day with a beauty of a delivery. The Mandya-born bowler sent rival skipper Natraj Behera’s middletimber cart wheeling for a perfect start.

Vinay removed the other opener Sandip Mulia (14) before Akshay, who replaced Ronit More in the eleven scalped the in-form Govind Poddar (4). Wicketkeeper C.M. Gautam dived brilliantly to his right to collect the thick edge off Poddar’s wood, for the second of his six catches on the day and the first of three delightful takes.

Gautam thus equaled his immediate predecessor Thilak Naidu’s record, against Andhra in Mysore four seasons ago.

In the morning, though Vinay struck to a nagging line throughout his early spell, Sharath's early zest fizzled out soon and Akshay wasted his energy, spraying too many deliveries way outside the off-stump on a wicket which slowed down inside the first session itself. Taking advantage of the situation, Odisha moved to 83/3 at lunch.

Two balls into the second session, Sharath produced a beauty to pack off Biplab Samantray (28) before the ‘fifth-wicket syndrome’ hit Karnataka bowlers yet again in the season.

Niranjan Behera, drafted for the first time into the squad this season, propped up the visitors with a mature 61 (177b, 11x4), marked by solid backfoot play. His 69-run alliance for the fifth wicket with Subhrajit Sahu (45, 128b, 6x4) pegged back the hosts before Niranjan was cleaned up by Vinay, bowling round the wicket.

In that brief barren phase, Karnataka’s lone spinner K.P. Appanna cut a sorry figure.
But unlike their previous matches, the middle-order revival didn’t hurt Karnataka much as Vinay spurred a late-order collapse with a two-wicket burst before Akshay packed off the last two to statistically return the best bowling figures of the day.

SCOREBOARD Odisha 1st Innings: S. Mulia c Gautam b Vinay 14, Natraj Behera b Sharath 0, Niranjan Behera b Vinay 61, G. Poddar c Gautam b Akshay 4, B. Samantray c Gautam b Sharath 28, S. Sahu c Gautam b Binny 45, Deepak Behera c Gautam b Vinay 0, L. Samal c Gautam b Akshay 13, A. Sahoo c Pawan b Akshay 9, B. Mohanty (not out) 10, A.Mangaraj b Akshay 0. Extras (NB-11, W-3, LB-4) 18.
Total (all out, 79.3 overs) 202 FoW: 1-3, 2-20, 3-36, 4-87, 5-156, 6160, 7-182, 8-183, 9-202 Bowling: Vinay Kumar 18-8-31-3, H.S.Sharath 15-3-47-2, S.L. Akshay 14.3-340-4, S. Binny 15-4-44-1, K.P.Appanna 12-0-29-0, A. Verma 5-2-7-0 Karnataka 1st Innings: K.B. Pawan (batting) 9, R. Uthappa (batting) 4.
Extras (B-1, LB-1, NB-1) 3.
Total (for no loss, 6 overs) 16 Bowling: B. Mohanty 3-1-5-0, A.
Mangaraj 2-0-5-0, D. Behera 1-0-4-0