It was only after Basant Mohanty (5/76) got rid of Delhi’s old hand Mithun Manhas immediately after lunch that Odisha were hopeful of wrapping up the home team’s first innings.

Till then it was Delhi, batting on a slowish Kotla wicket, who were largely dictating terms and Odisha could do nothing but to wait for the home batsmen to commit mistakes.

Mohanty, however, was one bowler who constantly troubled the batsmen. His accuracy meant that the batsmen had to be watchful.

He had trapped Shivam Sharma in the 10th over of the day and was persisted with . Once Mohanty bowled Manhas on 84, six overs later, the thorn in the flesh was removed. Mohanty then finished off the innings by taking two wickets in two deliveries — Varun Sood who had made 27 off 45 and last man Vikas Tokas.

Delhi were all out for 353 in 111.2 overs, adding 105 to their overnight score of 248. On Day One, he had troubled Gambhir before trapping him in front. The veteran of 56 First-Class games was quick to realise that wicket-to-wicket bowling was the best option at this venue.

This was Mohanty’s fourth match this season and his five-wicket haul against Delhi has taken his season’s tally to 16.

Against Haryana, he had picked up six wickets but that was on a more helpful wicket at Lahli. He is not an express bowler so Mohanty, on the Kotla wicket, which lacked both bounce and pace, stuck to his plan of containing the batsmen. His economy rate of 2.59 indicated how difficult it was for the batsmen to score off him. His high arm action coupled with the use of wrist makes the ball deviate off the track.

Of his five dismissals, four of them were trapped in front, indicating that he was getting the ball to cut in sharply. “Actually, the day before the match, the wicket where we practice on was similar to the one on which the match was played on. I got to know that I just have to bowl within the stumps as our coach advised me that I might get a lot of LBW opportunities rather than making the batsman edge the ball. I am happy to get five wickets on this slow pitch,” Mohanty said.

Brief Scores: Delhi 353 all out in 111.2 overs (U Chand 117, M Manhas 84, N Saini 42 n.o; B Mohanty 5/76, D Behera 2/57) vs Odisha 25/1 in 7 overs (G Rout batting 14)