Hosts take charge after Orissa falter

The hosts? strategy of keeping the playing strip secret till the last moment seems to have paid high returns.

The hosts’ strategy of keeping the playing strip secret till the last moment seems to have paid high returns. In fact, it could have almost sealed this Ranji semi-final in their favour on the first day itself had the local batsmen showed some amount of patience.

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It wasn’t to be, and as of now, the match still stands though it is tilted a little towards Rajasthan. The hosts are 108 for 5, after having lost two quick wickets late in the evening, in reply to Orissa’s miserable 94. Much was discussed about the wicket on Tuesday but eventually the fear of Debashish Mohanty was cast aside and a fresh track, with a tinge of green and some unevenness, was served. And from the first ball on, the batsmen stood guessing for answers.

It was a jackpot for Sanjay Gill (6 for 20 in 17 overs) who began the decimation process by castling SS Dass (13). After one-down RR Parida (2) went, edging a snorter from Gill to wicketkeeper Dishant Yagnik, sanity ruled for a while. It looked as if Rajasthan had lost the advantage of winning the toss, but a careless stroke from the other opener, Paresh Patel, who tried to hook Sanjay Gill and was caught at backward short-leg, opened the floodgates.

The debris was mopped up by Pankaj (4 for 26). “There was no devil in the pitch. We just played bad shots,” Orissa coach Sritam Dass clarified later, but he might not be hundred per cent correct.

Mohanty too extracted something from the wicket that had lost its morning freshness. He took two of the three quick wickets -- Deepak Mangaraj took one. The one that dismissed Naresh Gehlot was special. Mohanty displayed that same late swing that had once made him a star in Toronto. The left-hander was opened up and a slight deviation smooched the off-stump.

Credit needs to be given to Rajasthan camp for keeping the top-order batsmen under wraps against Mohanty’s opening spell. Both Yagnik, who opened the innings and Gehlot, who came at one down, play late down the order.

It is here that Gagan Khoda needs to kick himself. He along with Nikhil Doru took them past the Orissa mark -- from 25 for 3 to 90 for 3 -- and just when they needed to see off the day, Khoda perished to a wild swipe. Rahul Kanwat didn’t contribute much and was sent back leg-before by Mohanty. So now it all depends on that man again -- Ajay Jadeja.