Debutant medium pacer Subodh Bhati grabbed 4/17 as hosts Delhi beat Baroda by 31 runs in their opening group C game of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, here on Thursday.
Put into bat, Delhi managed to scrap around scoring 208 for seven in 50 overs, largely due to the 76-run stand for the seventh wicket between Nitish Rana (62) and Pawan Negi (47).
Delhi were 113 for six at one stage with India opener Shikhar Dhawan contributing 25 while skipper Gautam Gambhir scoring a painstaking 17.
Rana held the innings together facing 86 balls, hitting seven boundaries in the process. The 'little' Negi was more assertive as he took only 57 deliveries for his 47 which had a couple boundaries and six.
Veteran India discards Irfan Pathan (1/52) and Munaf Patel (1/44) got a wicket each. Youngster Rishi Arothe (2/30) was the most successful bowler.
In reply, Baroda were never in the match as Delhi bowlers pegged away to a disciplined line bowling them out for 177 in 46.5 overs.
"Since I have an idea of how to bowl on this Kotla track, I used a lot of slower deliveries and varied my pace. We knew that 200-220 is a defendable," Bhati, who has already made his debut in four-day format this season, said after the match.
Ishant Sharma (9-1-29-0) bowled well but did not get a wicket while Pradeep Sangwan (2/41) was sharp. Negi (1/25) also kept batsmen under check. Deepak Hooda (50) was the only batsman who looked in some kind of form.
Ambati Rayudu (14), Pathan brothers Irfan (0) and Yusuf (2), failed in this match. Irfan was bowled off the first delivery off Milind Kumar as he tried to cut a delivery that kept low.
Brief Scores
Delhi: 208/7 (Rana 62, Pawan Negi 47, Dhawan 25, Gambhir 17, Rishi Arote 2/30, Irfan Pathan 1/52) beat Baroda: 177 (Deepak Hooda 50, Rayudu 14, Yusuf Pathan 2, Irfan Pathan 0, Bhati 4/17, Sangwan 2/41, Saini 2/51) by 31 runs.
Delhi won by 31 runs. Points: Delhi 4; Baroda 0
Dhawan to refrain from bowling
Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan will not bowl in competitive matches (domestic or internationals) as he in all likelihood will not go for any action correction at the ICC accredited institute in Chennai within the next 14 days. The ICC on Wednesday issued a media release, saying that Dhawan's part-time off-breaks were found illegal by the on-field umpires and his action was reported. Although, he is still allowed to bowl in competitive matches, the rule requires him to undergo a test at Chennai based institute within two weeks.
However, according to sources in the BCCI, Dhawan will not go for any action correction as he is not even a proper part-time spinner. "Dhawan's forte is not his bowling and the Indian team will not miss anything if he does not bowl his off-breaks. Why does he need to go to Chennai for action correctionIJ There is a possibility that he might not ever bowl in a competitive match in near or distant future," a senior BCCI official in the know of things said.
Elsewhere
Andhra: 273 (AG Pradeep 71, Siva Kumar 51; Murasingh 2/45, Sanjay Majumder 2/45) beat Tripura: (Nirupam 52, Parvinder Singh 50; Sudhakar 3/28, Cheepurapalli Stephen 3/41) by 59 runs; Jharkhand: 210 (MS Dhoni 9, Ishank Jaggi 54, Kaushal Singh 53, Waseem Raza 3/31) beat J&K: 201/7 (Parveez Rasool 63, Shubham Khajuria 60, Shahbaz Nadeem 3/28) by 9 runs; Services: 230/7 (Yashpal 75*, Nakul Verma 68; Nathu Singh 4/42) beat Raj: 167 (Yadav 52; Paliwal 2/10); Punjab: 254 (Yuvraj Singh 93, Mandeep 41; Kulkarni 3-41, Sagar Trivedi 3-21) lose to Mumbai: 255/5 in 45.1 overs (Jay Bista 92, Nayar 44 not out; Kaul 3-58); Assam: 210 (Jamalluddin 59, Amit Verma 24; Ashwin 3-31) lose to TN : 214/4 (Mukund 104, V Shankar retired hurt 42; Krishna Das 1/21); K’taka: 228/9 (Vinay Kumar 50 not out, Mayank 44; Pandey 3/45, Yadav 3/25) lose to Railways: 232/9 (Karn 51, Rawat 50, Pathan 50; Vinay 4/45);Odisha: 226/9 (Arabind Singh 62; Thakur 3/44) beat Vidarbha: 223 (Ravi 97, Akshay 72; Alok Sahoo 5/39); HP: 243/8 (Rishi Dhawan not out 67, Paras Dogra Chawla 3/49) lose to UP: 247/3 (Eklavya 104*, Rinku 62*).