Mohanty rocks Saurashtra

A fiery spell by medium pacer Debashish Mohanty helped Orissa bundle out hosts Saurashtra for 160 runs on the opening day of their four-day Ranji Trophy Plate Group 'A' match at Rajkot on Wednesday.

However, the hosts fought back and captured four Orissa wickets with the scoreboard reading 50 at close.

Earlier, Orissa skipper Mohanty won the toss and asked Saurashtra to bat first.

Only three Saurashtra batsmen Sagar Jogiyani (39), Nikhil Rathod (36) and skipper Jaydev Shah 31 could resist the fiery spell by Orissa skipper, whose disciplined bowling put the hosts in trouble.

Orissa too lost four wickets quickly, including that of Test discard Shiv Sunder Das (18), before Parida and Mullik rescued the visitors adding 48 runs for fifth wicket. Parida was unbeaten on 28 with Mullick on 36 at stumps.

For Saurashtra, Jobanputra bagged two wickets, while Manir and Thani had one each.

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Asnadkar leads from the front

Skipper Swapnil Asnadkar led from the front with an unbeaten 87 as Go reached 192 for four on the first day of their last league match in the Ranji Trophy Plate division match against Tripura at Agartala on Wednesday.

Electing to bat after winning the toss at the Maharaja Bir Bikram Stadium, Asnadkar stood like a rock on one end and remained unbeaten on 87.

His opening partner Sagun Kamath (20) stitched a 49-run stand with Asnadkar, before Kamath was caught at short square leg by Rasudeb Dutta off a delivery of spinner Sujit Roy.

Roy also claimed the wickets of V Kambkar (14) and J Harish (7).

Mander Phadke, who then joined the skipper, countered the Tripura spin attack for some time and their partnership added 86 runs on the board.

Phadke scored 32 runs during his almost three-hour long stay at the wicket before being dismissed by Timir Chanda when the umpires called off play for the day.

Sujit Roy became most successful bowler of the fielding side taking three wickets for 51 runs.

Brief scores:

Goa first innings 192/4 (S Asnadkar 87 not out, S Roy 3/51)