Basant Mohanty grabs six as Odisha take upper hand vs Uttarakhand

Odisha rode on a six-wicket haul by veteran pacer Basant Mohanty to take the day one honours against Uttarakhand in their Elite Group C Ranji Trophy match at DRIEMS Ground in Cuttack on Wednesday.

The 33-year-old became the wrecker-in-chief with his 6/17 as Odisha bundled out Uttarakhand for 117 in 48.4 overs after being sent in.

Dikshanshu Negi was the top-scorer with 36 while opener Tanmay Srivastava managed 24 with Mohanty tearing through the middle and lower order.

Odisha were 98 for three, trailing by just 19 runs, at stumps with Biplab Samantray (35 batting) and Shantanu Mishra (30 batting) at the crease in a 57-run unbeaten stand.

In another Group C match in New Delhi, medium-pacer Diwesh Pathania grabbed 5/36 as Services bowled out Tripura for a paltry 126 in 48.4 overs after they elected to field.

Tripura suffered a stunning collapse to be 19/6 inside 11 overs with five of their batsmen getting out for single digit scores but a fighting half century by Nirupam Sen ensured that they get past the 100-run mark.

Batting at No. 8, the wicketkeeper-batsman struck 54 from 112 balls (5x4, 1x6)) to give Tripura bowlers something to fight for.

In reply, Services were 23 for 2 at the close of play, trailing by 103 runs.

In Pune, opener Ruturaj Gaikwad stood tall amid the ruins with a 199-ball 108 (14x3, 3x6) to take Maharashtra to 238/6 after they opted to bat.

One run shy of a half century, Vishant More gave a fine support as the duo stitched together 79 runs for the sixth wicket before Gaikwad was dismissed by Ajay Mandal at the fag end of the day.