Medium pacers Basant Mohanty and Debasis Mohanty shared seven wickets to wreck the first innings of Punjab on the second day of Orissa`s four-day Ranji Trophy Super League (Group-A) match at Sector-16 Stadium in Chandigarh today. In reply to Orissa’s first innings total of 283, Punjab were reeling at 144 for eight when stumps were drawn for the day. Old nemesis Basant destroyed the opposition top order, scalping four wickets for 44, while his senior teammate Debasis bagged three wickets for 47 to put Orissa in a commanding position. This is the second time that Basant caused irrepairable damage to Punjab innings in a Ranji Trophy match. Last year on November 23, he claimed seven wickets for 27 runs to guide Orissa to victory at Bhubaneswar. Debasis Mohanty’s three wickets enabled him complete his 400 victims in first class cricket. This was his 110th first class match and he reached the milestone, dismissing M S Gony for 24. Earlier, resuming their first innings at 232 for seven, Orissa rode on all-rounder Alok Sahoo’s fighting half-century to register the healthy total. Sahoo scored 58 with the help of seven boundaries before he was dismissed by M S Gony. Love Ablish Singh emerged as the most successful bowler for Punjab, bagging six wickets for 110 runs. With Punjab trailing by 139 runs with two wickets in hand, a golden opportunity has been created for Orissa to post their first win in the Super League this season. SCOREBOARD: ORISSA (1st innings): Bikash Pati c & b Gony 52, Shiv Sundar Das c Kaul b Gagandeep 14, Niranjan Behera c Sharma b Ablish 72, Rakesh Mohanty b Ablish 12, Pravanjan Mullick lbw Ablish 28, Haladhar Das c Inder b Ablish 3, Subhrajit Sahoo lbw Ablish 10, Alok Sahoo c Kaul b Gony 58, Debasis Mohanty c Sharma b Gony 15, Basant Mohanty c Kaul b Ablish 12: Dhiraj Singh (not out) 0: Extras (lb-3, nb-4) 7 Total (all out, 99 overs) 283 Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-83, 3-107, 4-175, 5-184, 6-189, 7-198, 8-268, 9-275, 10-283. Bowling: Gagandeep Singh 24-7-62-1, Love Ablish 28-2-110-6, V Bhalla 6-1-16-0, M S Gony 24-8-51-3, R Sharma 17-3-41-0. PUNJAB (1st innings): R Inder Singh lbw Sahoo 46, V Bhalla b B Mohanty 0, U Kaul b B Mohanty 8, T Kohli c H Das b B Mohanty 20, P Dharmani b B Mohanty 5, S Sohal b D Mohanty 0, M Sidhana (batting) 32, R Sharma c H Das b D Mohanty 1, MS Gony c Behera b D Mohanty 24, Gagandeep Singh (batting) 1: Extras (lb-2, nb-5) 7 Total (8 wkts, 50 overs) 144 Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-14, 3-58, 4-74, 5-77, 6-85, 7-86, 8-114 Bowling: Debasis Mohanty 17-8-47-3, Basant Mohanty 18-4-44-4, Alok Sahoo 13-2-50-1, Dhiraj Singh 2-1-1-0. Photo: Orissa medium pacers Basant Mohanty (L) and Debasis Mohanty.