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Bhatia hits century, Delhi in command

Special Correspondent

Nagothane: Speedster Parvinder Awana, cut and carved for plenty of runs in his six-over spell, flattened the middle stump of a confident Vishant More, brought an end to a flourishing half-century partnership for the second wicket and gave Delhi a crucial breakthrough.

Delhi struck two more blows through Chetanya Nanda and Pradeep Sangwan to stay in the hunt to pick up the full five points against Maharashtra in their Ranji Trophy Group ‘A’ Super League match at the Reliance Cricket Stadium here on Tuesday.

After conceding the first innings points to Himachal Pradesh in the previous game, Delhi has dominated play here for three days and even has a chance of winning the bonus point. For that, it has to skittle out Maharashtra below 190. Following his admirable bowling effort, Rajat Bhatia, without being spectacular, made a century and put his team in a strong position.

Unlucky

Maharashtra, in deficit by a substantial margin in the first innings and unhappy with the negative response from umpires S. Lakshmanan and Sanjeev Rao for at least half-a-dozen leg-before shouts, was at the receiving end when the former awarded a decision in favour of Delhi and left-arm seamer Sangwan. Harshad Khadiwale had nicked the ball on to his pad and was stunned to see the finger go up.

Thereafter, Maharashtra advanced positively with More defending stoutly and Hrishikesh Kanitkar competently dealing with Sangwan who was determined to make amends for his poor first innings effort.

Given a second spell, Sangwan was first hammered through extra-cover for a sparkling boundary by Venugopala Rao. The Maharashtra skipper appeared to be in excellent touch, but Sangwan trapped him in front with a ball that tilted in.

The departure of Kanitkar in the post-tea session must have hurt Maharashtra more. The left-hander was not beaten even once and used his feet well. However, Kanitkar made the mistake of stepping out to leg-spinner Nanda, missed the line and offered Puneet Bisht enough time to stump him.

Venugopala and Kanitkar fell after Awana, given a short three-over second spell, had beaten More through sheer pace.

The plucky Yogesh Takawale and Vishal Bhirale denied Delhi any more breakthroughs. Takawale’s six over midwicket in the last over of the day mirrored his natural style.

Timely effort

Earlier, Delhi added 131 to its overnight total of 278 with Bhatia scoring a superb and timely century (107, 314b, 5x4, 2x6) and Mayank Tehlan making 53 in a little over three hours. The sixth-wicket pair raised 123 before Tehlan holed out to Digambar Waghmare at long-on off left-arm spinner Salil Agharkar.

It turned out to be a memorable fifth first-class match for Agharkar who took five wickets while sending down 20 overs more than the experienced leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule.

The scores:

Maharashtra — 1st innings: 219.

Delhi — 1st innings: A. Chopra lbw b Bahutule 73, S. Dhawan c Takawale b Sayyeed 7, C. Nanda c sub (Mohan) b Fallah 10, V. Sehwag b Fallah 9, M. Manhas c More b Agharkar 74, R. Bhatia c Venugopala b Agharkar 107, M. Tehlan c sub (Waghmare) b Agharkar 53, P. Bisht c More b Fallah 4, Narinder Singh c More b Agharkar 5, P. Sangwan (not out) 18, P. Awana lbw b Agharkar 4; Extras (b-15, lb-12, nb-13, w-5): 45; Total (in 149.5 overs): 409.

Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-61, 3-78, 4-153, 5-244, 6-367, 7-377,8-384, 9-391.

Maharashtra bowling: Sayyeed 27-11-56-1, Fallah 35-9-106-3, Khadiwale 15-3-30-0, Bahutule 17-0-68-1, Agharkar 37.5-6-85-5, Rao 18-1-37-0.

Maharashtra — 2nd innings: V. More b Awana 27, H. Khadiwale lbw b Sangwan 0, H. Kanitkar st. Bisht b Nanda 50, V. Raso lbw b Sangwan 13, Y. Takawale (batting) 18, V. Bhilare (batting) 11; Extras (b-3, lb-3, nb-1, w-3): 10; Total (for four wkts. in 38 overs): 129.

Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-63, 3-98, 4-102.

Delhi bowling: Sangwan 11-2-33-2, Awana 6-0-35-1, Nanda 14-1-39-1, Bhatia 3-2-1-0, Sehwag 1-0-5-0, Narinder 3-1-10-0.

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