PATIALA: Gautam Gambhir hit a timely century to give Delhi a reason to smile and stay in contention in the North Zone one-day league cricket championship here. Delhi openers Gambhir and Aakash Chopra put on a century-stand to lay the foundation before the last minute inclusion, Abhishek Sharma, struck three wickets to help script a 57-run win against Haryana at the Dhruv Pandove stadium on Sunday.

The win, however, came without the bonus point. Delhi now has six points and is joint third with Jammu and Kashmir, which lost one point as Himachal eked out a win with a bonus. Punjab leads the table with 11 points after beating Services, followed by Himachal on nine. Chopra and Gambhir set the tone early on. Gambhir was more aggressive of the two keeping his scores at pace with the balls faced. On the other end, Chopra completed his second successive half-century before Sachin Rana trapped him.

Chopra (52) and Gambhir were together for 114 runs, Delhi's second century partnership for the first wicket in as many matches. But unlike against Punjab when Delhi crumbled in Mohali on Friday, Gambhir showed character by carrying on the good work in company of his skipper Shikhar Dhawan.

Gambhir hit nine fours and a six before Amit Mishra snapped him off Rana, after having scored 116 runs and 109-run second wicket stand with Dhawan. The Delhi skipper himself was on test after two failures and he came good, somewhat, in scoring 46 off 56 balls with two boundaries. The dependable Mithun Manhas was unbeaten on 30 as Delhi scored 294 for four in the allotted 50 overs.

In reply, Haryana lost its way early on when it lost two early wickets, before Vishal Sahni (53) and Sachin Rana (36) added 88 runs for the third wicket. Abhishek Sharma, who was included in the team only Sunday morning, snared three. Amit Bhandari and Abhishek Bali had two each to arrest a late charge by Haryana.

Himachal scores win

At the Sector 16 Stadium in Chandigarh, Himachal put its best foot forward in beating overnight leader, Jammu and Kashmir, by seven wickets. Chasing the modest total of 183, Himachal achieved the target in 39.3 overs with Sandeep Sharma (43) and Paras Dogra (69) helping it to earn the win with a bonus point.

In Mohali, Punjab was merciless against Services beating the embattled forces squad with nine wickets. After V.R.V. Singh struck three wickets, opener Karan Goel (70 not out) continued with his good form in the company of Dinesh Mongia (61 not out).

The scores: At Patiala: Delhi 294 for four in 50 overs (Aakash Chopra 52, Gautam Gambhir 116, Shikhar Dhawan 46) bt Haryana 237 for seven in 50 overs (Vishal Sahni 53, Dhruv Singh 45). At Chandigarh: Jammu and Kashmir 183 in 47.3 overs (Abid Nabi 44) lost to Himachal 184 for three in 39.3 overs (Sandeep Sharma 43, Paras Dogra 69).

At Mohali: Services 150 in 49.4 overs (Jasvir Singh 42) lost to Punjab 151 for one in 33 overs (Karan Goel 70 n.o., Dinesh Mongia 61 n.o.)

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail