In what turned out to be an exciting day of first-class cricket, hosts Delhi capitalised on a slender four-run first innings lead to take control of their Ranji Trophy group league encounter against Vidarbha.
After scoring 302 in their first innings courtesy an 88-run ninth-wicket stand between Manan Sharma (53) and debutant Sarang Rawat (42), Delhi bowlers came back strongly to reduce Vidarbha to 47 for four in their second essay.
An outright victory looks imminent as Vidarbha are only 43 runs ahead with six wickets in hand. The day belonged to Manan and Sarang who ensured at least three points for Delhi after they were reduced to 196/8 after being 161 for two at one stage. He hit 12 boundaries in 236 balls but his dismissal put tremendous pressure on the middle order as Milind Kumar (20) and Vaibhav Rawal (0) were dismissed cheaply.
Buoyed by the small lead, Delhi bowlers came out all guns blazing as Pradeep Sangwan (2/22) castled Faiz Fazal and then induced dangerous looking Wasim Jaffer (20) who was caught by Unmukt. Ishant Sharma (1/9) then bowled flat out to trouble the batsmen with sheer pace as Ganesh Sathish (9 batting) failed to touch four consecutive deliveries. An identical ball saw Shalabh Srivastava edge one to Mohit Ahlawat behind stumps.
In between Manan removed S Badrinath, having him plumb in front to give his team complete command over proceedings.
Brief Scores
Vidarbha: 298 & 47/4 (Pradeep Sangwan 2/22, Ishant Sharma 1/9) lead Delhi: 1st innings 302 (Gautam Gambhir 96, Nitish Rana 61, Manan Sharma 53, Sarang Rawat 42, Wakhare 5/113) by 44 runs.
sarang shuns helmet
Even as the cricket fraternity is still coming to terms with Phillip Hughes' on-field death and talking about improving quality of protective head gear, Sarang stunned everyone by choosing to wear a cap against Vidarbha's pace bowlers in team.
His act, however, did not amuse his coach Vijay Dahiya, who termed it as something which was "not clever".
The 19-year-old Sarang, whose 42 went a long way in Delhi getting the first innings lead, came out wearing a helmet as Delhi's 8th wicket fell.
But to everyone's dismay, he immediately called the substitute fielder and gave away his helmet, wearing a normal cap as he faced pacer Ravi Thakur.
For the next nine overs, he continued wearing a cap against Thakur, Shrikant Wagh and Swapnil Bandiwar.
"Actually, Sarang loves to hook and pull. He thought that wearing a cap would force the Vidarbha bowlers to dig it in and he can make most of short balls," Delhi's Pradeep Sangwan said after the day's play. But in the post lunch session, Sarang was seen wearing a helmet on the instructions of coach Vijay Dahiya.
Certainly an act of bravado that did not go down well with the coach. Ironically, Sarang was out trying to fend a short ball when he was wearing a helmet during match.