Mumbai fight back with vengeance

Send packing for 180 in the first innings, 37-time champions Mumbai fought back with a vengeance to reduce hosts Orissa to three for three at the close of opening day of their four-day Ranji Trophy Elite Group-A match at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack today. Electing to bat on a seamer-friendly pitch, group leaders Mumbai suffered a top-order failure to be reduced to 22 for three. Experienced Amol Muzumdar (34) and Vinayak Samant (46) steadied the innings to some extent by stitching together 84 runs in the fourth wicket. But the exit of Muzumdar signalled another slump for the visitors, who lost five wickets for 39 runs to be tottering at 145 for eight. However, an unbeaten 26 by tailender Dhawal Kulkarni helped them reach the modest total. Promising medium-pacer Basant Mohanty proved to be the wrecker-in-chief of the Mumbai innings, bagging five wickets for 50 runs. He formed a deadly combination with senior speedster Debasis Mohanty, who returned with three wickets for 28. Part-time spinner Niranjan Behera wiped out the Mumbai tail, scalping the last two wickets. All the in-form batsmen of Mumbai, including captain Wasim Jaffer, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and Sahil Kukreja came a cropper against spirited bowling attack of the home team. But Orissa squandered a day`s excellent performance in just 10 minutes by losing three wickets in 1.2 overs. In the absence of an injured captain Shiv Sundar Das, who badly split a finger web in his right hand, the home side was in a dilemma to find a makeshift opener. Adding to the plight, regular opener Bikash Pati was trapped by Dhawal Kulkarni in the very first ball of the innings. Four balls later, Kulkarni struck again to send back temporary opener Niranjan Behera. Operating from the other end, up-coming speedster K Waingankar castled night-watchman Dhiraj Singh in his second ball to give the day`s procedings a dramatic end. According to Orissa coach Abakash Khatua, captain Das, who required seven stitches in his hand, has been ruled out of the ongoing match. ``Das suffered the injury while attempting a catch of Amol Muzumdar. We hope he would be available for the last match against Gujarat,`` Khatua said. Brief scores: Mumbai 180 all out (Vinayak Samant 46, Amol Muzumdar 34: Basant Mohanty 5/50, Debasis Mohanty 3/28, Niranjan Behera 2/13) vs Orissa 3 for 3 (Dhawal Kulkarni 2/3).