The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Delhi manages slender lead

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Sunday, Nov 28, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

Delhi manages slender lead

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV. 27. Railways ran out of steam in the home stretch and Delhi raced away with a slender but crucial 15-run first innings lead as the four-day Ranji Trophy Elite `A' group league match appears headed for a draw at the Jamia Millia ground here on Saturday.

At stumps on the penultimate day, Delhi was 101 for one when play was called off 13 minutes earlier due to poor light. Young opener Shikhar Dhawan is looking to turn his unbeaten half-century into his maiden century. Akash Chopra, however, failed to convert a good start into a big score.

Before Delhi's batsmen squashed Railways' hopes of making a match of it, all the action was packed in an exciting first session. Railways needing 70 runs to take the lead with five wickets in hand, was hoping to reach its goal through overnight batsmen Sidharth Verma and the dependable Yere Goud.

But Delhi turned the tide decisively through medium pacers Sanjay Gill and Amit Bhandari who struck alternatively to reduce Railways to 181 for nine and still needing 36 to overhaul Delhi's 216.

Off the very second ball of the day, Gill bowled Gaud with an in-cutter that kissed the batsmen's bat before crashing into the stumps. Bhandari had Shankar Rao leg-before and Gill raised Delhi's hopes further by having Harvinder Singh caught behind. When Bhandari won another leg-before decision, this time against Sudhir Wankhede, Delhi was firmly in control.

However, Verma and last-man Kulamani Parida exceeded all expectations by adding 20 runs in 63 minutes to give Railways a ray of hope. But Railways' hunt for the first innings lead came to a painful end following the run out of Parida.

Verma turned a delivery from Rahul Sanghvi to fine leg and eager to retain the strike, started for a second run but sensed danger and sent back Parida, who failed to beat the throw from Shikhar Dhawan. Verma remained unbeaten on 44 after batting for nearly four hours.

A much-relieved Delhi rejoiced the dismissal as though it had won the match. After all, it had fought all the way from 30 for five on the first day. Now that the host has ensured two points from this seemingly drawn encounter, it has an opportunity to gain some useful batting practice ahead of its match against Madhya Pradesh next month.

The scores:

Delhi — 1st innings: 216.

Railways — 1st innings: A. Pagnis (run out) 49, S. Bangar c Bali b Gill 0, Tejinder Pal Singh c & b Sanghvi 23, Raja Ali c & b Sanghvi 16, S. Verma (not out) 44, J.P. Yadav lbw b Bhandari 23, Yere Goud b Gill 8, Shankar Rao lbw b Bhandari 5, Harvinder lbw b Bhandari 4, K. Parida (run out) 7. Extras (lb-1, nb-7, penalty runs-5) 13. Total 201.

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-67, 3-94, 4-99, 5-126, 6-148, 7-165, 8-176, 9-181.

Delhi bowling: Bhandari 23-3-55-3, Gill 25-11-48-3, Sarandeep 16-2-47-0, Sanghvi 16.3-3-37-2, Bhatia 4-2-8-0.

Delhi — 2nd innings: A. Chopra lbw b Parida 31, S. Dhawan (batting) 55, R. Bhatia (batting) 14. Extras (lb-1) 1. Total (for one wicket) 101.

Fall of wicket: 1-73

Railways bowling: Harvinder 4-1-8-0, Yadav 7-4-6-0, Rao 17.5-7-33-0, Bangar 8-3-25-0, Parida 15-5-24-1, Tejinder 1-0-4-0.

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