Rookie medium pacer Sudeep Tyagi sliced through Orissa's batting capturing six wickets for 46 as the hosts crumbled for 216 on the opening day of the four-day Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'B' match against Uttar Pradesh at the Barabati stadium in Cuttack on Saturday.

Except former Test opener Shiv Sundar Das (75) and P Jayachandra (55), none of the other Orissa batsmen could handle the UP bowlers well, as debutant Tyagi claimed three of the first four wickets with only 25 runs on the board.

However, the hosts hit back by claiming three UP wickets including skipper Mohammed Kaif (four) for 84 at close of play.

Orissa decided to bat after captain Pravanjan Mullick won the toss, but the innings began disastrously.

Tyagi bowled veteran Rashmi Ranjan Parida for one and then trapped Niranjan Behera (one) LBW before inducing an edge from Subit Biswal (0) which was taken by wicketkeeper Mohammed Amir Khan.

Captain Mullick, who hit four quick boundaries, was bowled by paceman Mohammed Abid Khan for 16.

Opener Das, who held one end up for four hours, played the role of sheet anchor as he added 86 runs with Jayachandra for the fifth wicket.

Das' innings which spanned 165 balls, was studded with a dozen boundaries while Jayachandra hit 13 fours playing 65 balls. He latter added 43 runs for the sixth wicket with stumper Haladhar Das (14) and 41 runs with Debasis Mohanty 27, five fours) for the seventh wicket.

Shivakant shukla picked up two wickets for 16 runs as the Orissa innings ended at tea.

When UP commenced its innings, Orissa struck early with medium pacer Sukanta Khatua removing opener Rahat Elahi (seven) trapping him LBW with the total on 11.

UP lost two more wickets as Tanmay Srivastav (six) was claimed by medium pacer Debasis Mohanty while Kaif was clean bowled by the third medium pacer Pritamjit Das.

Opener Shivakant Shukla was batting on 35 while in-form Suresh Raina hit four boundaries while making 27 off 31 balls when play ended.

Scorecard:

Orissa (1st innings)
R R Parida b S Tyagi                 1
S S Das lbw b S Tyagi               75
N Behera lbw b S Tyagi               1
S Biswal c M A Khan b S Tyagi        0
P Mullick b M Abid Khan             16
P Jayachandra c M A Khan b P Chawla 55
H Das c M A Khan b S Tyagi          14
D Mohanty c P Chawla b S Shukla     27
S Satpathy c M A Khan b S Tyagi      0
S Khatua c R Mishra b S Shukla       7
P Das not out                        1
Extras (b 8, lb 9, nb 1, w 1)       19
Total (all out in 64 overs)        21

Fow: 1-2  2-8  3-8  4-25  5-111  6-154  7-195  8-195  9-215

Bowling: M Abid Khan 14-8-33-1, Sudeep Tyagi 16.5-6-46-6, Ratnesh Mishra 11-1-36-0  Ravikant Shukla 4-0-24-0  Piyush, Chawla 14.1-5-44-1, Shivkant Shukla 4-0-16-0

Uttar Pradesh (1st innings)
R Elahi lbw b  SKhatua                 7
S Shukla batting                      35
T Srivastav lbw D Mohanty              6
M Kaif b P Das                         4
S Raina batting                       27
Extras (lb 4, w 1)                     5
Total (for three wickets in 26 overs) 84

FoW: 1-11  2-27  3-35

Bowling: Debasis Mohanty 8-0-20-1,  Sukanta Khatua 8-3-29-1, Pritamjit Das 5-1-22-1, P Jayachandra 3-3-0-0, Sanjay Satpathy 2-0-9-0