The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Bhatia puts Delhi in driver’s seat

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Monday, Dec 10, 2007
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Bhatia puts Delhi in driver’s seat

Special Correspondent

Nagothane: Rajat Bhatia’s remarkable effort of five for 29 put Delhi on top against Maharashtra in their Ranji Trophy Group A Super League match at the Reliance Cricket Stadium here on Sunday.

Returning to the national competition after an ankle injury and missing the match against Himachal Pradesh, the left-arm seamer Pradeep Sangwan was off-colour and his new ball partner Pravinder Awana was quite pedestrian. In the circumstances, skipper Virender Sehwag placed his trust on a tricky customer who in his previous 38 first-class matches had taken as many wickets.

Extra bounce

Tossed the ball that was 14 overs old and when Maharastra seemed to have taken control after suffering an early blow, Bhatia exploited the extra bounce at the pavilion end. He first caused the downfall of three top-order batsmen and finished the task with a career-best effort. His previous best was four for 16 against Saurashtra this season in Delhi.

The visitor lost left-hander Shikhar Dhawan to six-foot tall fast bowler Wahind Sayyeed when the umpires offered the light to Aakash Chopra and Chetanya Nanda. Delhi will not find Maharashtra’s aggregate of 219 a tough task.

On a day when the start was delayed by one hour due to heavy dew on the outfield and moisture in the pitch, Sehwag ably marshalled his limited resources and attempted to make up for lost time. On their part, the seamers and spinners did not offer too many opportunities to cut, and not even a single delivery to pull.

Delhi took charge of the match once Bhatia terminated opener Vishat More’s show of aggression, and in the post-lunch session produced a beauty to send back Venugopala Rao.

Maharashtra’s in-form batsman Yogesh Takawale fell to Bhatia, unable to deal with the extra bounce that was also the cause of Venugopala’s dismissal after he had begun with a classic front-foot cover drive.

All the five batsmen Bhatia dismissed either edged to the wicketkeeper or the slip cordon.

The scores:

Maharashtra — 1st innings: V. More c Chopra b Bhatia 35, H. Khadiwale c Bisht b Awana 0, H. Kanitkar c Dhawan b Bhatia 67, Venugopala Rao c Bisht b Bhatia 5, Y. Takawale c Bisht b Bhatia 8, V. Bhilare c Chopra b Nanda 31, K. Jadhav b Nanda 33, S. Bahutule c Manhas b Bhatia 0, A. Agharkar c Chopra b Nanda 17, S. Fallah (not out) 6, W. Sayyeed b Narinder 0; Extras (b-3, lb-1, nb-4, w-9): 17; Total (in 77.4 overs): 219.

Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-54, 3-63, 4-74, 5-144, 6-167, 7-170, 8-198, 9-218.

Delhi bowling: Sangwan 15-2-44-0, Awana 9-2-40-1, Nanda 22-9-40-3, Bhatia 16-6-29-5, Sehwag 6-0-29-0, Narinder 9.4-0-33-1.

Delhi — 1st innings: A. Chopra (batting) 12, S. Dhawan c Takawale b Sayyeed 7, C. Nanda (batting) 0; Extras (b-1, lb-1, w-2): 4; Total (for one wkt. in 6.2 overs): 23.

Fall of wicket: 1-23.

Maharashtra bowling: Sayyeed 3.2-0-8-1, Fallah 3-0-13-0.

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