Failing to cement his place in the Mumbai team after making his first-class debut three years ago, the 20-year-old Pawar finally came good on a track that offered good bounce. Barring rookie opener Dhiraj Jadhav (55: 22b, 334m, 5x4), none of the other Maharashtra batsmen had a clue to escape the web of death he wove around them.

Coach Ashok Mankad complimented Pawar's exploits: ``It was one of the finest exhibition of left-arm spin bowling I have seensince a long, long time.''Pawar's demolition act saw his first three scalps coming in eight balls. He was on a hat-trick twice when he dismissed Nikhil Dixit (21) and Indrajit Kamtekar and then Satyen Lande and Iqbal Siddiqui in succession. He conceded his first boundary in the 17th over, which was indicative of the hold he had on the Maharashtra batsmen. Pawar improved upon his earlier best of 5-93 against Haryana on the same venue in his debut season (1996-97). Bowling an unchanged second spell from the Garware Pavilion end he ended with figures of 14.4-5-18-6.

Though Nilesh Kulkarni, who bowled in tandem with Pawar, went wicketless he was also instrumental in keeping the batsmen on a tight leash.

Notwithstandintg the tiny figure of Pawar towering over the day's proceedings, all three debutants in the match Mumbai's Amol Rane and Sriram Kannan and Maharashtra's Dhiraj Jadhav too impressed in their first day in office. Jadhav almost ended up with a rare honour of an opener carrying the bat on hisdebut. The left-handed opener, who showed admirable patience finally appeared to have run out of it along with his partners as he holed out to mid-wicket to become Pawar's sixth victim.

Wicket-keeper Rane highlighted his reflexes in no uncertain terms while snapping a Shantanu Sugwekar slash and a Nikhil Dixit shot that richoted off silly-point fielder Manoj Joglekar's shoes and ballooned over for the 21-year-old stumper to pouch it diving upfront. The debutant ended up with four victims under his belt.

Though the 20-year-old Kannan had little to show by way of figures, he was impressive in his lateral movements with the ball.

Just two days ago, Pawar had been nominated the Castrol Junior Cricketer of the Year (98-99) and was supposed to attend the presentation ceremony in New Delhi tomorrow. But the youngster of humble origins would cherish the applause more that he received as he led the team out after bundling out the oppositon today.

Scoreboard
Maharashtra (1ST INNINGS): SurendraBhave c Muzumdar b Mhambrey 9 (30B, 41M, 1x4); Dhiraj Jadhav c Muzumdar b Pawar 55 (224b, 334m, 5x4); Abhijit Kale c Rane b Kannan 7 (18b, 25m, 1x4); Shantanu Sugwekar c Rane b Mhambrey 21 (67b, 99m, 3x4); Nikhil Dixit c Rane b Pawar 21 (63b, 77m, 3x4); Indrajeet Kamtekar c Jaffer b Pawar 0 (1b, 1m); Sanjay Kondhalkar c Mhambrey b Pawar 5 (10b, 17m, 1x4); Satyen Lande c Kannan b Pawar 5 (36b, 46m); Iqbal Siddiqui c Kambli b Pawar 0 (1b, 1m); Milind Kulkarni c Rane b Saxena 6 (17b, 23m, 1x4); Sachin Nair not out 0 (4m). Extras (6b, 2lb, 5nb): 13Total (in 78.4 overs; 334 mins): 142

Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Bhave, 8.4 overs), 2-23 (Kale, 13.3), 3-67 (Sugwekar, 35.5), 4-101 (Dixit, 54.3), 5-101 (Kamtekar, 54.4), 6-107 (Kondhalkar, 56.4), 7-121 (Lande, 72.1), 8-121 (Siddiqui, 72.2), 9-138 (Kulkarni, 78), 10-142 (Jadhav, 78.4)Bowling: Mhambrey 14-8-9-2, Saxena 11-3-22-1, Kannan 13-3-38-1 (5nb), Kulkarni 23-8-46-0, Pawar 17.4-7-19-6

Mumbai (1st innings): Manoj Joglekar batting 3(28b, 50m); Wasim Jaffer batting 18 (35b, 50m, 3x4). Extras (1lb, 3nb): 4
Total (for no loss in 10 overs): 25
Bowling: Siddiqui 5-3-5-0, Nair 3-0-15-0 (3nb), Kulkarni 2-1-4-0