Poddar ton rescues Odisha; Saini six-for sinks Maharashtra

Govinda Poddar's fourth first-class ton was the only bright spot in Odisha's innings which was terminated for 232 by Karnataka's bowlers in Mysore.

Electing to bat, Odisha lost Natraj Behera in the third ball of the innings to Karnataka captain Vinay Kumar, but Poddar, along with Rajesh Dhuper, added 42 runs for the second wicket. However, after Dhuper was dismissed by Stuart Binny, two more wickets fell in quick succession to leave the visitors struggling on 73 for 4.

Poddar and Pratik Das, then, added 93 runs for the fifth wicket before Udit Patel had Pratik caught by Binny. There was little resistance in the Odisha innings thereafter, as legspinner Shreyas Gopal and left-arm spinner J Suchith spliced through the lower order. Poddar was the ninth man out, bowled by Suchith. Gopal and Suchith finished with seven wickets between them.

Delhi 157 for 4 (Rana 59, Shorey 54) lead Maharashtra 80 (Saini 6-32) by 77 runs
Scorecard.

Seamer Navdeep Saini's six-wicket haul, his maiden five-for in first-class cricket, shot out Maharashtra for 80 inside 26 overs at the Feroz Shah Kotla.

Electing to bat, Maharashtra were reduced to 8 for 3, with Saini accounting for all the wickets, including those of captain Rohit Motwani and Kedar Jadhav. Harshad Khadiwale, who top-scored with 21, and Ankit Bawne did some damage control with a 38-run alliance. But, once Saini had Khadiwale lbw, Maharashtra were on a freefall and their innings didn't last more than two hours.

Delhi's reply began as shakily as the visitors' innings, with openers Gautam Gambhir and Unmukt Chand dismissed inside four overs to leave them on 9 for 2. However, a 99-run partnership between Dhruv Shorey and Nitish Rana steered them out of trouble, and Delhi ended the day with a lead of 77 runs.

Bengal squandered a strong start after being put into bat by Vidarbha in Kolkata. Openers Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sayan Mondal put on 118 runs, but after Easwaran was caught behind off Shrikant Wagh, the hosts' innings began to disintegrate, as they slipped from 118 for 1 to 140 for 4.

A 42-run stand between Sudip Chatterjee and Pramod Chandila helped Bengal stage a mini-recovery before offspinner Akshay Wakhare, who claimed four wickets, prised out Chandila. Wicketkeeper Amol Ubarhande collected five dismissals.

Assam seamer Krishna Das and Dhiraj Goswami picked up seven wickets between them after Haryana opted to bat in Rohtak. Only Himanshu Rana and Rohit Sharma resisted for Haryana, adding 73 for the third wicket. But, apart from them, only one more batsman managed to reach double figures.