One should never rest on laurels and those who do pay the price like Delhi and Madhya Pradesh did on Tuesday.
Fresh from good performances in the previous round, the batting of both teams failed miserably on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy encounter.
First the visitors, thanks to a lacklustre approach from their batsmen, were dismissed for just 158 in the first two sessions. However, they had MP six down for 86 by stumps.
The wicket always looked like it had something for the bowlers but did not have any demons for the batsmen.
Opting to bat first, the Delhi batsmen failed to apply themselves, as MP medium pacers Amit Sharma and T Sudhindra looked too good.
Opener Shikhar Dhawan played some flashy strokes before Sharma got him caught behind in the first hour of play. Milind Kumar followed him soon as he failed to judge another one from Sharma that came back in to uproot his off stump.
Skipper Mithun Manhas was the only one who got out to a ball that deserved a wicket. The delivery from Sharma just clipped his gloves to be pouched by wicketkeeper Naman Ojha. Unmukt Chand, who looked scratchy, gave it away by nicking an Ishwar Pandey-delivery to Ojha.
T Sudhindra picked four quick wickets. The only batsman who looked in some sort of control was wicketkeeper Punit Bisht. Fresh from an unbeaten match-winning double century, he hit some good strokes for his 35. However, the lower order failed to provide him company and Delhi were all out at tea.
{{/usCountry}}T Sudhindra picked four quick wickets. The only batsman who looked in some sort of control was wicketkeeper Punit Bisht. Fresh from an unbeaten match-winning double century, he hit some good strokes for his 35. However, the lower order failed to provide him company and Delhi were all out at tea.
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