The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Delhi faces uphill battle

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Delhi faces uphill battle

Special Correspondent

Rajkot: Delhi was fighting with its back to the wall after losing three quick wickets in reply to Saurashtra's mammoth 492 in the Ranji Trophy Group `A' Super League match at the Madhavrao Scindia Stadium. Left arm spinner Ravinder Jadeja took two wickets off just 12 balls.

Delhi's decision to pick an additional seamer, especially one who had not played for eight months, on a pitch with wide cracks has so far backfired. It underestimated an opponent, which had made 386 against Tamil Nadu last week. Five Saurashtra batsmen have scored half centuries with the promising Chetan Pujara making his third first class century and second in a row in this match.

Delhi had its bright moments before lunch. Bowling round the wicket, fast bowler Ishant Sharma removed Sitanshu Kotak, the ball taking the inner edge and dislodging the bails. Thereafter, Saurashtra lost three more wickets for the addition of 15 runs with left arm seamer Ashish Nehra and Amit Bhandari doing the damage. Saurashtra skipper Jaydev Shah, however, threw away his wicket.

Delhi seemed to have done its homework on the line of attack to Pujara. He was not given leeway to whip shots off his toes and pads. The gangling Ishant Sharma was unyielding, sticking to the off stump corridor. Nehra excelled in swinging it back into the right-hander.

Pujara, however, stuck around and found Makvana willing to put his head down and treat the bowling on its merit. They added 58 runs for the eighth wicket before Manhas tossed the ball to Rajath Bhatia, who had bowled four overs on Monday and was called upon again only after lunch on Tuesday. Bhatia produced a beauty of an outswinger that had Pujara (139, 343m, 268b, 19 x 4) groping forward and nicking to Puneer Bisht. At 393 for 9, it looked as though Delhi's misery would end soon, but the last wicket pair of Kamlesh Makvana and Sandeep Maniar prolonged the nightmare. Makvana and Maniar flailed Delhi's pace and spin attack to put on 99 runs in a rollicking rearguard show. Delhi also conceded 56 extras as Saurashtra managed to take the score to 492.

Of the three wickets Delhi lost, Akash Chopra's was probably unfortunate. Umpire R. Radhakrishnan adjudged him leg before. It appeared that the ball had pitched outside the leg stump. Tehlan fell to a delivery that turned from the rough and Bhandari fell to one that straightened up. Delhi would have been in more danger if Rakesh Dhruv had caught Shikhar Dhawan. Delhi has its task cut out. It's facing a tall score and it's to contend with a tricky patch in the pitch.

The scores:

Saurashtra — 1st innings: K. Vaghela c Bisht b Nehra 17, S. Jogiyani b I. Sharma 61, P. P. Joshi lbw b Nehra 0, S. Kotak b I. Sharma 95, C. Pujara c Bisht b Bhatia 139, R. Jadeja c Chopra b Nehra 4, J. Shah c Nehra b Bhandari 5, R. Dhruv c Bisht b Bhandari 0, K. Makvana not out 54, S. Jobanputra c Tehlan b I. Sharma 4, S. Maniar c Bisht b Suhail Sharma 57, Extras (b-9, lb-5, nb-41, w-1): 56; Total (in 163.2 overs) 492.

Fall of wickets: 1-50, 2-58, 3-134, 4-294, 5-308, 6-317, 7-323, 8-381, 9-393

Delhi bowling: Nehra 38-10-115-3, Sharma 36-5-117-3, Bhandari 24-2-75-2, Bhatia 13-2-29-1, Sharma 41.2-6-107-1, Manhas 11-0-35-0.

Delhi — 1st innings: A. Chopra lbw b Jobanputra 10, S. Dhawan batting 30, M. Tehlan c Jogiyani b Jadeja 6, A. Bhandari lbw b Jadeja 0, M. Manhas batting 10, Extras (lb-1, nb-3, w-1): 5; Total (for 3 wkts. in 14 overs) 61.

Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-44, 3-50.

Saurashtra bowling: Jobanputra 5-1-31-1, Maniar 4-0-11-0, Makvana 3-0-17-0, Jadeja 2-1-1-2.

At Anantpur: Andhra 238 in 95.5 overs (A.S.K. Varma 103, Y. Venugopal Rao 69, K.P. Appanna five for 79) & 64 for one in 37 overs v Karnataka 111 in 43.2 overs (D. Kalyanakrishna six for 43).

At Mumbai: Mumbai 503 for seven decl. in 136 overs (S.O. Kukreja 58, Amol Muzumdar 52, R. Sharma 205, A. Nair 97) v Gujarat 118 for five in 38.3 overs (N.K. Patel 62).

At Jaipur: Rajasthan 332 in 143 overs (V.S. Solanki 74, N.S. Doru 59, Afroz Khan 52, Rajesh Sharma five for 99) v Punjab 106 for four in 41 overs (P. Dharmani 44 batting).

At Kolkata: Maharashtra 215 in 101 overs (S. Sriram 68 not out, R.R. Bose five for 60, S.S. Sarkar four for 71) v Bengal 199 for five wickets in 65 overs (A.A. Jhunjhunwala 41).

At Chennai: Tamil Nadu 325 in 106.4 overs (R. Prasanna 134, R. Ashwin 42 not out, P. Kumar four for 58) v Uttar Pradesh 204 for four in 71 overs (M. Kaif 88).

At Vadodara: Haryana 171 in 79.2 overs (A.P. Bhoite four for 61) & 89 for two in 42 overs (Sumit Sharma 45 batting) v Baroda 169 in 60 overs (Connor Williams 58)

Plate Division: At Cuttack: Orissa 552 for seven decl. in 168.1 overs (S.S. Das 300 not out, P.M. Mullick 53, R.R. Das 101) v Jammu & Kashmir six for two in 8.1 overs.

At Indore: Goa 223 in 78 overs (S.K. Kamat 50, S. Pandey six for 47) & 67 for two in 29 overs v Madhya Pradesh 205 in 64.5 overs (M.D. Mishra 56, M. Ali 49) at Indore.

At Nagpur: Assam 308 in 145.4 overs (A. Katti 93) v Vidarbha 151 for two in 37 overs (A.V. Deshpande 59 batting, H.V. Shitott 51).

At Agartala: Tripura 275 in 111.5 overs (S. D. Chowdhury 52, T.K. Chanda 98 not out, R. Banik 48, S. Nadeem four for 63) v Jharkhand 169 for five in 56 overs (Rajiv Kumar 48, Santosh Lal 50 batting).

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