Seamers Basant Mohanty, Alok Mangaraj and Biplab Samantaray claimed three wickets to host Odisha restrict Karnataka to 278 in the first innings of their four-day Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match at the East Coast Railway Stadium in Bhubaneswar today.
Put into bat on a lively wicket, the formidable Karnataka side struggled at 130 for five before an unbeaten half-century by stumper C Gautam and his 85-run sixth-wicket stand with Amit Verma enabled  them compile the competitive total.
Earlier on the opening day, Robin Uthappa (37) and K Pawan (29) gave the visitors a good start, stitching together 77 runs for the opening wicket. But Mangaraj changed the course of the match, dismissing both the openers in successive overs. He got his third wicket when Bharat Chipli was caught by Poddar for 16.
All-rounder Samantray complemented Mangaraj nicely by pocketing the wickets of opposition skipper Satish Ganesh for 31 and all-rounder Stuart Binny for zero. After losing five wickets for 53 runs, Karnataka went to a defensive mode and were successful in keeping the four-pronged Odisha pace attack at bay.
Odisha's pace spearhead Basant Mohanty, who went wicket-less on the opening day, asserted his class on the second morning, dismissing Gautam, S Raju and S Akshay. Samantaray completed his three-wicket haul by sending back S Aravind.
But the good work done by the bowlers proved in vain as Odisha struggled, losing four wickets for 71 runs at lunch on the second day. After make-shift openers Paresh Patel and Subhrajit Sahoo gave them a modest start, putting up 55 runs for the opening wicket, the home side suffered collapse, losing the top four batsmen for a meager eight runs.
Earlier, Odisha made three changes in the side, including second wicket-keeper Subhrajit Sahu, middle-order batsman Poddar, all-rounder Paresh Patel and Mangaraj in places of injured opener Natraj Behera, his opening partner Bikash Swarup Pati, all-rounder Lagnajit Samal and left-arm spinner Dhiraj Singh.