The Hindu : Sport : Chopra and Bhatia come to Delhi’s rescue

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Chopra and Bhatia come to Delhi’s rescue

Nandakumar Marar

The pair put on 160 runs in the unbeaten fifth-wicket stand

— Photo: Vivek Bendre

DISASTROUS START: U.P.’s Praveen Kumar got rid of Shikhar Dhawan too after having dismissed opener Gautam Gambhir.

MUMBAI: Akash Chopra, blunting the fury of fast bowlers in the way only he can, doused the fire in crafty Praveen Kumar and nippy Sudeep Tyagi to keep Delhi’s ambitions alive on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group final at the Wankhede stadium on Thursday. He found an able understudy in all-rounder Rajat Bhatia and the two grafters put on 160 runs in the unbeaten fifth wicket stand, lifting the team total from a dicey 36 for four to 196 for four at stumps.

Delhi trails Uttar Pradesh by 146 runs with three days remaining. Chopra (85 batting, 205 balls) and Bhatia (81 batting, 135 balls) have already driven the UP bowlers to frustration, so much so that India pace prospect Praveen wondered why the ex-India opener was not in Australia confronting the pacers there, instead of troubling him.

Prize scalps

Gautam Gambhir, Shikhar Dhawan and Mithun Manhas were prize scalps for the UP pace spearhead but he ran into a wall in the shape of Chopra.

Chopra, needing 18 deliveries to get off the mark, batted with the mindset expected of a proven international performer. He looked hungry for a century and more. Bhatia worked the ball into gaps before choosing bolder methods to tame the bowling. Both the batsmen treated Praveen and Tyagi with respect and played the waiting game as the duo tested the batsmen with swing and some short stuff.

Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla’s entry in the 24th over was a signal for Bhatia to flex arms. His partner soon joined in, reducing UP’s grip on the game with a mix of orthodox strokeplay and lusty hitting.

Praveen had earlier unsettled the Delhi openers with movement off the seam, picking up the wickets of Dhawan and Manhas with incoming deliveries. Gambhir departed after attempting to drive the second ball he faced on the rise and Suresh Raina latched on to the resultant flier. Dhawan was bowled off the inside edge while Manhas missed the line and was declared out lbw.

UP’s first innings had ended at 342. Ravikant Shukla paid for his impatience four runs short of 100 — a wild heave off Bhatia ending in Manhas’s hands. Pradeep Sangwan (four for 80) and Sumit Narwal (four for 81) were too clever for the tailenders.

The scores:

Uttar Pradesh — 1st innings: Rohit Srivastava lbw b Narwal 6, Tanmay Srivastava c Dhawan b Sangwan 105, Suresh Raina lbw b Sangwan 16, Mohd Kaif c Chopra b Nanda 16, Ravikant Shukla c Manhas b Bhatia 96, Piyush Chawla c Jain b Narwal 20, Amir Khan c Chopra b Sangwan 15, Praveen Kumar c Manhas b Narwal 8, Bhuvanesh Kumar c Jain b Narwal 10, Praveen Gupta c Bhatia b Sangwan 27, Sudeep Tyagi (not out) 0, Extras (b-1, lb-13, nb-5, w-4) 23; Total (in 110.1 overs) 342.

Fall of wkts: 1-21, 2-60, 3-99, 4-200, 5-231, 6-274, 7-285, 8-297, 9-341

Delhi bowling: Pradeep Sangwan 27.1-7-80-4, Amit Bhandari 21-3-79-0, Sumit Narwal 26-5-81-4, Rajat Bhatia 19-3-41-1, Chetanya Nanda 16-2-39-1, Mithun Manhas 1-0-8-0.

Delhi — 1st innings: Gautam Gambhir c Raina b Praveen Kumar 0, Akash Chopra (batting) 85, Shikhar Dhawan b Praveen Kumar 14, Mithun Manhas lbw b Praveen Kumar 0, Aditya Jain c Raina b S. Tyagi 8, Rajat Bhatia (batting) 81, Extras (lb-2, nb-4, w-2) 8; Total (for four in 67 overs) 196.

Fall of wkts: 1-1, 2-15, 3-15, 4-36.

Uttar Pradesh bowling: Praveen Kumar 21-6-44-3, Sudeep Tyagi 15-4-44-1, Bhuvanesh Kumar 12-4-30-0, Piyush Chawla 10-2-47-0, Praveen Gupta 7-2-22-0, Ravikant Shukla 2-0-7-0.

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