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Delhi strike back
Hosts Delhi are aware that they have to surpass Tamil Nadu's total of 463 if they are to reach the Ranji Trophy semifinals. They had plenty of time, but the need of the hour was to have long and fruitful partnerships, especially considering that they had lost their openers on Friday, reports Anam Arsalan.
Hosts Delhi are aware that they have to surpass Tamil Nadu's total of 463 if they are to reach the Ranji Trophy semifinals. They had plenty of time, but the need of the hour was to have long and fruitful partnerships, especially considering that they had lost their openers on Friday.
On Saturday, at stumps, Delhi achieved what they had set out for — a fine partnership and a decent score of 294 for four.
Resuming on 69 for two on Saturday, Mithun Manhas and Aditya Jain were in the mood to forge one.
The two started scoring in ones and twos, pushing the odd ball to the boundary and rotating the strike.
Veteran Manhas too looked set for a big total. His focus was right and so was his temperament but his body failed him. He developed back spasm and was forced to take the help of team physio, Badrinath.
That didn't help and a few minutes later, Pradeep Sangwan was sent as runner for him.
It affected his rhythm and he ended up losing his wicket to left-arm spinner R Aushik Srinivas on 76 after stitching together a 134-run partnership with Jain. Trying to direct a delivery that pitched on the off towards the on side, Manhas ended up giving a catch to C Ganapathy at mid-on and the scoreboard read 167 for three.
Post lunch, Aditya Jain came to the fore. He and skipper Rajat Bhatia took advantage of the slow and low wicket to stitched together another partnership. This time around, it was Srinivas, who helped their cause. The man dropped Jain on 61 off his own bowling, when the scoreboard read 198 for three. Soon, Delhi crossed the 200-run mark and no sooner did that happen than the two batsmen started playing their strokes freely and boundaries became frequent.
The flamboyant Bhatia decided to take the attack to the opposition camp and belted a couple of boundaries to push the score to 233 for 3 at tea.
The third session started on a positive note for Tamil Nadu as they got the wicket they wanted.
Jain was trapped leg before by leggie Abhinav Mukund on 76 as the Delhi scorecard read 234 for four.
Jain and Bhatia added 67 for the fourth wicket.
New man, Gaurav Chhabra, picked up from where Jain had left and, with his skipper batting at the other end, decided to play a supporting role. Bhatia ensured that the scoreboard kept ticking.
The two had added 60 runs when stumps were drawn on 294 for four — a fairly strong position for the hosts.
