Off-spinner Manan Sharma (4/30) put up a solid display on his Ranji debut to give hosts Delhi an early advantage over Odisha as the visitors were bowled out for a paltry 143 in 47.1 overs on the first day of their Group B match at the Kotla here on Friday.
However, Delhi, too, found the going tough on a fresh Kotla track as Odisha speedster Basant Mohanty made optimum use of the conditions striking twice in the last session of the day to reduce Delhi to 62/3 including the scalp of skipper Shikhar Dhawan.
After electing to bat, Odisha lost their way early in front of a new-look Delhi pace attack comprising Pawan Suyal (3/43) and Parvinder Awana (1/23). Sumit Narwal, who retained his place from the game against Uttar Pradesh returned figures 2/35.
A Narwal delivery that hit skipper Natraj Behara (35), the highest scorer in the Odisha innings, put the visitors in a spot of bother as he had to retire hurt when the score was
41/3. None of the other top order batsmen were able to offer much resistance and barring Behara, could not even get into double figures.
Behara returned after his team were struggling to get the total to 100 after being reduced to 63/5, and put up a 51-run partnership with Halhadar Das (27) in an attempt to get some semblance of size to the innings.
But following his departure with the score at 114/6, Sharma got into the act as he polished off the tail. Had it not been the Deepak Behara’s 28-run effort, Odisha would have not even neared the 150-run mark.
Delhi were rocked early in their innings as opener Unmukt Chand (5) was caught behind off Mohanty. Dhawan (22) and fellow-debutant Mohit Sharma (16) took the score to 41 when the latter was adjudged leg before to Deepak.
Mohanty removed Dhawan towards the end of play but Mithun Manhas (batting 12) and Manan (batting 1) did not allow any further inroads.