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Wickets fall like nine pins on day one

Special Correspondent

Delhi’s hopes rest on Sehwag and Bhatia; incisive spell by Ishant

— Photo: Sandeep Saxena

CLEANED UP: Dhiraj Singh of Orissa has no clue to this one from Delhi pacer Ishant Sharma.

NEW DELHI: Delhi was clueless against swing. Orissa could not cope with pace. Twenty-four wickets fell on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy super league cricket match on a lively pitch at the Ferozeshah Kotla here on Saturday.

Gautam Gambhir, Aakash Chopra, Virat Kohli and Mithun Manhas got out twice in a day.

Gambhir had the dubious distinction of bagging a pair — facing two balls in each innings.

Appalling performance

It was an appalling performance by the batsmen on either side.

Delhi, asked to bat, collapsed for 78 and then skittled out Orissa for 80.

In the 15 overs left, Delhi was staring down the barrel at 38 for four with hopes resting a lot on the shoulders of skipper Virender Sehwag and crisis man Rajat Bhatia.

Debasish Mohanty, Sukanta Khatua and Basanta Mohanty claimed three wickets each in the Delhi first innings. They bowled within their limitations and kept the ball up to make a mockery of Delhi’s batting line-up.

The turning point was Sehwag’s run out off a misfiled.

When Orissa replied, opener Bikash Pati’s strokeful 32 (6x4) was the lone resistance to Ishant Sharma’s menacing show — five wickets in his first spell and two in the second.

Orissa coach Venkatapathy Raju summed it up well, “Our batsmen were not used to facing the kind of pace that Ishant generates.”

U.P. rallies back

At the Karnail Singh Stadium, a few purposeful knocks revived Uttar Pradesh’s fortunes in its Ranji Trophy super league match against Railways.

Pacer Anureet Singh and leg-break bowler Karan Sharma pegged the visiting side — which decided to bat — back with some accurate bowling.

But, Suresh Raina (66, 90b, 9x4), Piyush Chawla (47, 85b, 4x4, 1x6) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (28, 106b, 3x4) applied themselves to bail out their team, which was tottering at 125 for five at one stage.

Later, Praveen Kumar struck a breezy unbeaten half-century (51, 56b, 6x4, 1x6) helped Uttar Pradesh get past the 250-run mark. Principal Correspondent adds from Vijayawada

Washed out

The first day’s play between Andhra and Tamil Nadu in a super league Group ‘B’ tie was called off owing to the slushy outfield at the Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation stadium.

Umpires K.N. Ananthapadmanabhan and B. Ajit Kumar of Kerala said that an extra 30 minutes would be allotted for the rest of three day to make up for the loss of six hours of play. “Weather permitting, the match will start at 9.30 a.m. and would go on till 5 p.m.,” they said.

The scores:

Super league (day one): At Vadodara: Maharashtra 228 (K.M. Jadhav 80, I. Pathan five for 54) vs Baroda 88 for three.

At Delhi: Delhi 78 & 38 for four vs Orissa 80 (Ishant seven for 24).

At Ahmedabad: Gujarat 291 for five (P. Patel 84, B.D. Thaker 151 batting) vs Punjab.

At Delhi: Uttar Pradesh 275 for eight (S. Raina 66, P. Chawla 47, P. Kumar 51 batting) vs Railways.

At Rajkot: Saurashtra 270 for five (B.M. Chauhan 111 batting, C.R. Pathak 88) vs Rajasthan.

Plate division: At Kolkata: Tripura 88 (R. Bose five for 19) vs Bengal 138 for two (A.N. Ghosh 47 batting, M.K. Tiwary 82 batting).

At Rohtak: Haryana 275 for seven (R. Dewan 52, S. Singh 50, A. Mishra 48 batting) vs Goa.

At Palakkad: Jammu & Kashmir 184 (Shafiq Khan 50, T. Yohannan five for 43) vs Kerala 72 for two.

At Nagpur: Assam 183 for four (J. Martin 69, D. Sharma 44) vs Vidarbha.

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