The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Bahutule, Patel rescue Maharashtra after early slump

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Saturday, Dec 10, 2005

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Bahutule, Patel rescue Maharashtra after early slump

Sports Reporter

NEW DELHI: Debutant Mukesh Dewan gave Delhi a flicker of hope towards the close of play on the first day after Sairaj Bahutule and Munaf Patel had rescued Maharashtra from a near slump in the Elite Group A Ranji Trophy league match at the Jamia Millia ground here on Friday.

Dewan returned with figures of three for 44 after taking the crucial wicket of Munaf Patel, who played a cameo innings of 46 runs off 43 balls including three sixes and a four. Put in to bat, Maharashtra survived the day thanks to 80-run seventh wicket partnership between Bahutule (52, 138b, 4x4) and Patel, posting 183 for seven after 76 overs of play.

Maharashtra put itself in a mess as it hurried up with the start of the play. The pitch was damp to an extent that Delhi skipper Amit Bhandari had decided to request for an early lunch and delay going in had he lost the toss and asked to bat.

Bhandari was surprised to some extent when Maharashtra asked for start of the match and he knew that he had to make the most of the chance. Bhandari had opener Dhiraj Jadhav bowled for a naught with just three runs on the board. The early blow pushed Maharashtra in the corner as Delhi bowlers took full advantage of the situation and picked up wickets at regular intervals.

Dewan and Kunaal Lall had the top order back in pavilion before middle-order batsman Kaushik Aphale strained himself and was retired hurt after scoring 19 off 56 balls. Aakash Chopra guarded the slip well taking two good catches as Maharashtra slumped to 97 for six in the 57th over.Seasoned Bahutule had held on to one end and found an able partner in Munaf Patel.

The two set out to resurrect Maharashtra as Patel chose to go for some big shots.

He picked Chetanya Nanda to accelerate Maharashtra's total. In Nanda's 12th over, Patel hit him for two sixes including one that landed way far into the Jamia campus. The ball was considered lost before some students retrieved it.Patel was out to a straight delivery from Dewan as he tried to get the ball away from the wicket instead landed straight into wicketkeeper Varun Kumar's gloves. Aphale returned with a runner and in company with Bahutule saw that no more damage was done to Maharahtra innings.

Bahutule was batting on 52 while Aphale was on 24 at stumps on the first day.

The scores:

Maharashtra 1st innings: Mansingh Nigde lbw b Dewan 8, Dhiraj Jadhav b Bhandari 0, Hrishikesh Kanitkar lbw b Lall 17, Kaushik Aphale (batting) 24, Sairaj Bahutule (batting) 52, Abhijit Kale c Chopra b Lall 3, Dhruv Mohan c Chopra b Nanda 10, Satyajit Satbhai c Dhawan b Dewan 7, Munaf Patel c Varun Kumar b Dewan 46, Extras (b-1, lb-1, w-1, nb-13) 16, Total (for seven wickets in 76 overs) 183.

Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-19, 3-52, 4-57, 5-82, 6-97, 7-177.

Delhi bowling: Amit Bhandari 20-4-46-1, Kuunal Lall 21-9-24-2, Rajat Bhatia 5-1-15-0, Mukesh Dewan 15-1-44-3, Chetanya Nanda 13-3-46-1, Mithun Manhas 2-0-6-0.

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