Dindigul: Ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin starred with a five-wicket haul to help Tamil Nadu bundle out Himachal Pradesh for 158 in 71.4 overs on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Group 'B' match here on Tuesday. B Aparajith, leading the team in the absence of Vijay Shankar who missed out due to a niggle, elected to bowl and the bowlers justified the decision as Ashwin (5 for 67) and left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore (3 for 22) had the HP batsmen in a spin.

The visiting team looked in danger of being bowled out for a sub-100 score before Akash Vashist (35, 94 balls, 4 fours) and Mayank Dagar (33, 62 balls, 3 fours) got together at 76 for 7 to add 53 runs and lend respectability to the total. Ashwin, who had taken eight wickets (four in each innings) during the narrow loss to Karnataka in the opening round, was at it again as he bowled beautifully to trouble all the batsmen.