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Sunday, Dec 04, 2005

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Lahiri spells Delhi's doom

Special Correspondent

Shikhar Dhawan plays the lone ranger

NEW DELHI : Delhi suffered a ten-wicket humiliation at the hands of Bengal as the Ranji Trophy elite league match concluded with a day to spare at the Jamia Millia ground here on Saturday. The margin of victory landed Bengal a bonus point too even as it heightened the home team's worries for the season ahead.

In a shocking display of poor batting, Delhi, resuming at 22 for no loss, crashed to 131, leaving Bengal a target of 69 runs which the visiting team knocked off against a pedestrian attack.

"We were let down by the batsmen in both the innings. There was no application and the spinners too did not measure up to the expectations," said a disappointed Delhi skipper Amit Bhandari.

From the time Aakash Chopra was trapped leg-before, Delhi succumbed to the pressure that came from off-spinner Snehasish Lahiri's brilliant exploitation of the situation. Using his shoulder to get bounce and pace, he ran through the Delhi middle-order to finish with a five-wicket haul. His best scalp was Mithun Manhas, who was stunned by the bounce as the ball took the handle. "I found a spot but I knew that all I had to do was make the batsmen play," said Lahiri, employed with Metro Rail in Kolkata.

Barring young left-hander Shikhar Dhawan, there was none who showed the will to hang in. "We lost the match on the first day itself when we made only 148. Conceding lead (63 runs) was poor too," noted Delhi coach Madan Lal. Dhawan did well to face 99 balls before a swipe ended his plucky effort.

The Bengal camp was pleasantly surprised by the ease with which it accomplished the job. Lahiri's five-wicket strike was complemented by Shib Sankar Paul's three-wicket haul. "We bowled really well and credit should go to the seamers and spinners. We knew it was a under-prepared pitch and backed ourselves to do better than Delhi," observed Bengal skipper Deep Dasgupta.

Delhi, with no point from two matches, will meet Maharashtra at the same venue while Bengal, seven points from two matches, meets Mumbai in an away game.

The scores: Delhi — 1st innings: 148.

Bengal — 1st innings: 211.

Delhi — 2nd innings: A. Chopra lbw b Bose 18, S. Dhawan c A. Das b Lahiri 44, V. Kumar lbw b Paul 5, M. Manhas c Dasgupta b Lahiri 12, R. Bhatia b Lahiri 0, P. Chawla c Tewari b Lahiri 17, S. Singh b Lahiri 0, C. Nanda (not out) 11, K. Lall c Shukla b Paul 1, R. Sanghvi lbw b Singh 4, A. Bhandari b Paul 3, Extras (b-6, lb-4, nb-6) 16, Total (all out in 59.1 overs) 131.

Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-38, 3-78, 4-78, 5-94, 6-94, 7-111, 8-114, 9-126.

Bengal bowling: Paul 15.1-6-17-3, Lahiri 20-6-57-5, Tewari 1-0-1-0, Bose 10-2-27-1, S. S. Singh 13-4-19-1.

Bengal — 2nd innings: A. Das (not out) 17, S. Das (not out) 46, Extras (nb-6) 6, Total (for no loss in 23.3 overs) 69.

Delhi bowling: Lall 3-0-12-0, Nanda 9-2-25-0, Singh 4-0-6-0, Sanghvi 4-0-16-0, Bhandari 3.3-0-10-0.

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