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No quarters given, Delhi go through
Former champions Delhi today qualified for the quarterfinals as they managed to collect one point after their Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match against Bengal ended in a draw in Kolkata, reports Nikhilesh Bhattacharya.
Delhi had two targets at the start of Day 4 of their Ranji Trophy tie against Bengal: save the follow-on to nullify the chances of an outright loss and improve their over rate significantly in the second innings to avoid deduction of match fees. They succeeded in both.
Delhi needed to score 375 to cross the follow-on mark and managed three runs more before bowling 61 overs in three hours and 20 minutes to ensure that they got ahead of the over-rate for the match. Bengal helped themselves to 227 for three with opener Arindam Das scoring a hundred and his partner Rohan Banerjee missing out on one by getting run out.
The draw without first-innings lead gave Delhi the one point they needed to ensure a quarter-final berth as the third team from Elite Division Group B. They finished with 16 points from six matches, one more than Baroda but behind Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.
Delhi will play Karnataka at home in the quarter-finals. It is likely to be a tough game for them and they need to regain the momentum of two straight wins with which they had come to Kolkata. Bengal got three points from the match though their continuing presence in the Elite Division had already been determined in Pune where Maharashtra lost to Baroda to confirm that they would be the team getting relegated to the Plate Division.
With Delhi's progress and Bengal's safety a foregone conclusion much before the end of the match, it was but natural that proceedings in the middle were singularly uninspiring for most of the day. Delhi captain Rajat Bhatia, the one who would have been hit the hardest if the visitors did not improve their over rate, opened the bowling with his very gentle medium-pace. Bhatia later switched to off-spin and reeled through 21 overs on his own. Manoj Tiwary must be kicking himself for getting stumped to Bhatia's innocuous spin.
In fact, Delhi's regular medium-pacers, Ishant Sharma, Pradeep Sangwan and Parvinder Awana, bowled only 12 overs among them. Das was not complaining, as he eased his way to his sixth first-class century, which was also his second of the season and probably the easiest he will ever score.
Das's only blemish in the innings was his misunderstanding with Banerjee that left the two batsmen at the same end. Banerjee was run out for 77 and tea was called and Das did not come out to bat after the break. The scorecard put him down as retired out.
The only intense period of play unfolded in the morning, when Delhi were battling to avoid the follow-on. Overnight century-maker Puneet Bisht was batting well but Bengal attacked the batsmen at the other end with the pace of Ashok Dinda and left-arm spin of Iresh Saxena.
Saxena found some turn and saw Ishant dropped by substitute fielder Arindam Ghosh before getting the batsman stumped. When Parvinder Awana was bowled by Saxena, Delhi still required nine runs to avoid the follow-on. No. 11 Vikas Mishra stuck around and a couple from his bat took Delhi to the magic figure of 373.
