Ranji Trophy: Thakur, Kulkarni leave Odisha in disarray

BHUBANESWAR: 0-1, 0-2, 0-3, 2-4. That's how Odisha started their chase of Mumbai's first innings total of 289 on Day Two of their Group C Ranji Trophy clash at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology ground, here, on Thursday. And, had it not been for a 93-run partnership between debutant Shantanu Mishra (36) and the experienced Biplab Samantaray (72 not out), the hosts would have been bundled out far more cheaply than their eventual score of 145.Mumbai, who gained a crucial first innings lead of 144, finished the day at 58/3 in their second innings for an overall lead of 202 runs.
Earlier, the visitors, who closed Day One on 264-6, could manage to add only 25 runs before Odisha started their first innings. That's when the real drama began to unfold. Mumbai seamers Dhawal Kulkarni and Shardul Thakur began operating on a wicket which still had a lot of juice left in it. The seasoned Mumbai pros, who have delivered fairly successfully together, took full advantage of the conditions and reduced the hosts to 2-4 even before the third over had been bowled.
Kulkarni drew first blood when he had opener Sandeep Pattanaik edging one to Suryakumar Yadav in the slips. Thakur then struck with the very first delivery to have opener Natraj Behera caught by Akhil Herwadkar in slips.
He struck again with the second delivery to have new man Subhransu Senapati caught by Herwadkar. And even before Odisha could realise what had hit them, Kulkarni returned to strike again in his second and the team's third over. He induced an edge off Govinda Poddar but the ball moved so quickly that it flew off after hitting third slip fielder Siddhesh Lad's fingers. Luckily, though, for Mumbai, it looped in the air and Herwadkar completed an easy catch. Mishra and Samantaray took their time to settle down and bravely negotiated Thakur and Kulkarni. The Mumbai seamers were so enthused by the early breakthroughs that they made life extremely trying for the duo. But the two batsmen proved equally determined. They left deliveries which were going away. They ducked at the short ones and even took a few body blows but simply hung in there.
After surviving the wrath of Thakur and Kulkarni, they started to score quite freely. Samantary, who has been scoring runs for Odisha for a few seasons now, assumed the lead role with Mishra supporting him ably.
Odisha, though, couldn't survive another twin strike by left arm spinner Vijay Gohil by the time he was introduced in the 32nd over. Like Thakur, Gohil too struck twice in the first over of his spell. He first had Mishra caught by Prithvi Shaw for a battling 36 and then castled new man Saurbah Rawat. Samantaray, who kept running out of partners, had to return unbeaten with Odisha folding up for 145.
Shaw and Herwadkar began Mumbai's second innings with the cushion of having a first innings lead at the back of their minds. Expectedly, Shaw played some effortless strokes, both off his back and front feet. However, Herwadkar fell when Shaw's drive touched medium pacer Suryakant Pradhan's fingers and hit the stumps. The opener, who was backing up, had no chance to return in time. Ajinkya Rahane (0) would also consider himself a bit unlucky because he was adjudged leg before despite the ball taking a huge deflection off his bat. Shaw (46) was the third Mumbai batsman out, attempting a pull shot. When play was called for the day, Surya Kumar Yadav was batting on 9 and keeping him company was Kulkarni (0).