Promising young player Unmukt Chand scored his fourth Ranji Trophy century and helped Delhi take a big first innings lead against Rajasthan at the Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium on Tuesday.
Having already secured the lead and three points a day earlier, for Delhi it was all about putting enough runs on the board and then giving bowlers sufficient time to go for the maximum points.
With the fog threat in mind, Delhi declared their innings on 380 for six half-an-hour before tea. Apart from Unmukt's 146-run knock, Mithun Manhas (53) and Sumit Narwal (59 not out) scored half-centuries on Tuesday.
To further state their authority on the match, the Delhi bowlers claimed two Rajasthan wickets before the day was called off due to poor visibility. At stumps, the visitors were 78 for 2 in 31 overs. Opener Siddharth Saraf (42) and captain Ashok Menaria (12) were at the crease with Rajasthan needing 161 runs to avoid innings defeat.
Unmukt, who was unbeaten on 87 overnight and in desperate need of a big knock, quickly completed his century this morning after the match started an hour late due to fog. A crisp cover drive off Aniket Choudhary took the former U-19 World Cup winning captain to three figures.
After a crucial 128-run stand with Virender Sehwag on Monday, Unmukt shared two more important partnerships with Manhas (93) and Rajat Bhatia (48) to consolidate Delhi’s position in the match. He looked good for a big score but in the urgency of scoring runs quickly after tea, Unmukt committed a mistake. Trying to steer a ball that was close to his body down to third-man, he edged it to wicketkeeper Dishant Yagnik.
As Bhatia also perished in the next over, Delhi's plans of scoring some quick runs before declaring the innings seemed to go haywire. The new set of batsmen — Narwal and Punit Bisht — took some time to settle down. With some luck going his way, thanks to Rajasthan's lethargic fielding, Narwal scored run-a-ball half-century — his ninth in first-class matches — to take Delhi to a strong position.
Delhi missed the bonus point in the previous match against Saurashtra and they are again in a good position to earn an extra point. Whether they manage to earn it this time remains to be seen.
Brief Scores
Rajasthan: 141 and 78/2 in 31 overs (Siddharth Saraf 42 not out) trail Delhi: 380/6d (Unmukt 146, Sehwag 64, Manhas 53, Narwal 59; Aniket 3/81, Shailendra Gehlot 2/112) by 161 runs.