Odisha pace spearhead Basant Mohanty bagged a five-wicket haul to help skittle out Assam for 92, but the hosts were also in trouble after losing five wickets on the opening day of the Group A Ranji Trophy cricket encounter here today.
Put into bat on what seems a perfect bowling track at the Barabati Stadium, Mohanty wrecked havoc in the visiting camp, but soon the hosts found themselves in trouble at 52 for five at stumps. The Biplab Samantray-led side still trail by 40 runs.
Assam medium-pacer Krishna Das also came up with a befitting reply by bagging four wickets so far and the hosts' top-order were left clueless.
Anurag Sarangi (7 not out) and Abhilash Mallick (4 not out) are still fighting on as opener Natraj Behera (23) remains the top-scorer till now.
Earlier put into bat, the Gokul Sharma-led Assam saw two ducks in their innings as Amit Verma top-scored with 20.
Mohanty's fifer was also backed up by Suryakant Pradhan and Alok Chandra Sahoo, who bagged two wickets apiece.
Brief Scores:
Assam 92 all out in 52.4 overs (Amit Verma 20, Tarjinder Singh 17; Basant Mohanty 5-24, Suryakant Pradhan 2-33, Alok Chandra Sahoo 2-18)
Odisha 52/5 in 32 overs (Natraj Behera 23; Krishna Das 4-5, Arup Das 1-33).
