Elite 'A' bowlers Irfan Pathan (Jr) and Sarandeep Singh claimed three wickets each as Elite 'B' were bundled out for 219 on the opening day of their Duleep Trophy encounter in Bangalore on Thursday.

Elite 'B' skipper M S K Prasad was left ruing his decision to bat first after winning the toss, as the side's batsmen, barring Wasim Jaffer (62) and Vinayak Mane (39), failed to click at the Chinnaswamy stadium.

Jaffer hit six fours in his 140-ball innings and put on 77 runs for the second wicket with Mane, after opener Amit Pagnis fell cheaply (11), having been adjudged leg before wicket to Pathan.

Elite 'B' were at one stage comfortably placed. Their last four wickets yielded just 38 runs as the Elite 'A' bowlers asserted their supremacy.

Pathan and Sarandeep returned with identical figures of three for 53, bringing an end to unimpressive Elite 'B' innings after 80.1 overs.

In reply, the Reetinder Singh Sodhi-led Elite 'A', looking to salvage pride after bad performances in their three league engagements, were 29 without loss off seven overs at stumps.

Gautam Gambhir appeared in fine nick as he smashed three fours for his unbeaten 17, while Sanjay Bangar was giving him good company on nine.

Scoreboard:

 Elite B (1st innings):

A Pagnis lbw b Pathan                       11

W Jaffer run out                                 62

 V Mane b Pathan                               39

A T Rayudu c Kanwat b Sarandeep   13

A Yadav lbw b Bangar                       4

M S K Prasad run out                        17

G Pandey run out                               19

S Bahutule c Dasgupta b Pathan         16

R Power b Sarandeep                        14

Harvinder Singh c Rao b Sarandeep    2

A Salvi not out                                    0

Extras (b-9, lb-3, nb-9, w-1)              22

Total (all out, 80.1 overs)                   219

Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-98, 3-125, 4-131, 5-154, 6-181, 7-217, 8-219, 9-219.

Bowling: Irfan Pathan 16.1-3-53-3,  Sanjay Bangar 13-2-44-1, Reetinder Singh Sodhi 12-2-31-0, Sarandeep Singh 26-6-53-3, Rahul Kanwat 7-1-14-0, S Sriram 6-1-12-0.

Elite A (1st innings):

G Gambhir batting               17

S Bangar batting                  9

Extras (nb-3)                     3

Total (for no loss, 7 overs) 29

Bowling: Aavishkar Salvi 3-0-12-0, Harvinder Singh 2-0-11-0, Romesh Powar 1-0-4-0, Sairaj Bahutule 1-0-2-0.