Odisha in control after Haryana bowled out for 66

Haryana were caught badly in the 'green-trap' that they had set for their opposition with minnows Odisha bundling them out for a meagre 66 in the third round Ranji Trophy encounter on Saturday.

Haryana now have the ignominy of getting shot out for less than 100 in two of their first three matches. In the first match, it was Umesh Yadav's Vidarbha that skittled them out for 55 in the opening round.

This time it was the turn of wily Basant Mohanty who is always known to be a difficult bowler in helpful conditions and looked menacing on a track where the ball moved around. With the track at Lahli being the strip that he needed to show his prowess, the lanky seamer had figures of 5 for 24 in 11.1 overs as the home team were all-out in only 32.1 overs. He was well supported by Biplab Samantray who took three for 17.

Only Abhimanyu Khode and Rahul Dalal with scores of 12 and 21 respectively reached double figures for Haryana.

At stumps on day one, Odisha were sitting pretty on 177 for six and already have a handy 111-run first innings lead. However, there certainly will be an outright result after 16 wickets have fallen on the first day.

For the visitors, skipper Natraj Behra (44), Samantray (42) and Deepak Behra (31) had made useful contributions to beef up the lead.

Brief Scores:

Haryana 1st innings 66 all out in 32.1 overs (Rahul Dalal 21, Basant Mohanty 5/24, Biplab Samantray 3/17) vs  Odisha 1st innings 177/6 (Natraj Behra 44, Biplab Samantray 42, Deepak Behra 31, Mohit Sharma 4/37).