Delhi needed 155 runs to win their second match on the trot in Group A of Ranji Trophy when play commenced 15 minutes earlier than normal at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Sunday. At 69/0, out walked Unmukt Chand on 48 and captain Gautam Gambhir on 18. Haryana had an uphill battle to somehow salvage something from a pitch that had been slow throughout the four days. It offered no pace or bounce to the seamers and the spin was marginal. The only hope that the bowlers could take was in the erratic bounce.
And Harshal Patel made the most of that and Delhi’s poor middle order to pick up 4/76 but he couldn’t prevent the inevitable from happening primarily due to Unmukt’s superb knock of 99 runs.
Harshal picked up two early wickets of Gambhir (20) and Mohit Ahlawat (0) within the first three overs of the day’s play and three wickets overall in the morning session to peg Delhi on the backfoot with their middle order problems well known. The dismissal of Nitish Rana, the third wicket, brought everyone to their feet. The left hander pulled a short delivery to fine leg where Chaitanya Bishnoi took a splendid catch with the ropes within inches of him. The umpires conferred with the third umpire and raised the finger a minute later.
Unmukt’s 99-run knock consisted of fourteen boundaries and a six. He could have easily reached a century and ensured a smooth passage towards the target for his side but for a moment of not playing the right shot. Five overs from lunch, Unmukt tried to go for an upper cut, but he didn’t quite play the short and wide delivery well to edge the ball to Nitin Saini behind the stumps.
With 60 runs required and six wickets to spare, Delhi’s task of reaching the task wasn’t expected to be a tough one. Especially after Haryana’s middle order had shown a good account of themselves a day prior suggesting that there were runs on this wicket as long as the batsmen didn’t go for anything flashy.
The scoreboard read 183/6 and Ishant Sharma was out with a hamstring injury — effectively leaving Delhi with three wickets in hand and Harshal in full flow.
At this juncture, Milind Kumar (44 not out) and Pradeep Sangwan (11 not out) played pivotal knocks to take Delhi over the line. Sangwan hit a couple of late boundaries to soothe nerves and Milind cracked on on-drive off Sanjay Pahal to deliver the winning runs.
Brief Scores
Haryana: 195 (Jayant 41; Manan 5/57) & 267 (Sehwag 51; Sharma 6/105) lose to Delhi: 267 (Unmukt 68; Jayant 4/78) & 225/6 (Unmukt 99; Harshal 4/76) by four wickets.
Mumbai edge past TN by one wicket
Mumbai: Ranji giants Mumbai pulled off a thrilling one-wicket win over Tamil Nadu despite visiting skipper Diensh Karthik’s brilliant 167 in the first innings of the Group B league encounter here.
Chasing 236 for a win at Bandra Kurla Complex, the hosts saw fighting fifties from Shreyas Iyer (83) and Suryakumar Yadav (58) but could not save the regular fall of wicket to bag only six points by the skin of their teeth.
Even after losing their top batsmen, Mumbai were looking well-placed at 202 for five, but Yadav’s wicket spelt trouble for the hosts even as left-arm spinner Rahil Shah (4-78) and off-spinner Malolan Rangarajan (3-44) got down to business.
New-ball bowlers Aswin Crist and Mohammed also shared wicket apiece. Karthik’s first innings ton set the tone for the match as the visitors amassed 434 runs. In reply, Mumbai rode on Siddhesh lad’s 150 to manage 294 runs. The third innings saw a complete turnaround for TN as they were skittled out for 95 with left-arm spinner Vishal Dabholkar bagging a seven-wicket haul.
Brief Scores
Tamil Nadu: 464 and 95 all out in 36 overs (Murali Vijay 29, Malola Rangarajan 33; Vishal Dabholkar 7/53) lose toMumbai: 294 and 236/9 in 60.4 overs (Shreyas Iyer 83, Suryakumar Yadav 58; Rahil Shah 4/78, Malolan Rangarajan 3/44).
ElSEWHERE
Baroda: 302 & 60/2 drew with AP: 474/6; Rajasthan: 198 & 146/5 drew with Bengal: 282; Hyderabad: 434 & 2/0 drew with Himachal Pradesh: 707/8; Karnataka: 350 & 331/3 drew with Vidarbha: 310 & 17/0; Jharkhand: 202 & 262 beat Kerala: 148 & 183;Gujarat: 467 & 135/4 drew with Punjab: 608; Railways: 375 & 229/4 beat Uttar Pradesh: 264 & 58