The Feroze Shah Kotla pitch looked dead after day 1 and offered little to the seamers. The bounce was erratic with no real pace offered to the fast bowlers. The more defensive minded batsmen were hard to crack even by bowling consistently close to the stumps. And yet, Delhi’s Manan Sharma did just that.
He picked up five wickets in the first innings to leave Haryana in trouble at 195 and went one better in the second innings to pick six to leave Delhi with a comfortable task in chasing 224 runs. Of those, Delhi had already amassed 69 without any wickets conceded and vice-captain Unmukt Chand in pulsating form.
The right hander was 48 not out from 53 balls which included eight boundaries and a massive six over long on to Jayant Yadav. Beside him is an ever cautious captain Gautam Gambhir on 18.
While there were reasons for cheery mood for Delhi team members and officials, there was cause for concern too. Ishant Sharma had to sit out the day’s proceedings due to a hamstring injury he acquired before play commenced.
To add to Manan’s effort, he bowled 40.4 overs off the 93.4 overs that Delhi bowled in the second innings of the match which included a 30-over spell on either side of the lunch break. He started the bowling for Delhi, dismissed the dangerous Haryana captain Virender Sehwag and ended with his maiden 10-wicket match haul.
With Parvinder Awana being rendered ineffective, Ishant’s absence was felt even more as Haryana set a decent total on a tricky surface.
Starting from an overnight score of 68/2, Haryana lost Himanshu Rana on the fifth ball of the day with Parvinder Awana trapping him lbw on 14 runs.
Sehwag and Sachin Rana (46) put together 50 runs for the fourth wicket before Manan took Sehwag’s crucial wicket.
The former Delhi player offered hope with his usual flurry of strokes but in the end, he tried to play a late cut but with little room to maneouver, he edged to Gambhir in the slips. Sachin repeated his mistake later.
Haryana could have been bowled out even quicker but for three dropped catches. Helped by these, the visiting batsmen put together partnerships of 61 runs for the fifth wicket, 23 for the seventh, and 31 for the eighth to highlight the pitch had gotten easier to bat on.
Brief Scores
Haryana: 196 & 265 (Virender Sehwag 51; Manan Sharma 6/105) lead Delhi: 237 & 69/0 (Unmukt Chand 48 batting) by 154 runs.
elsewhere
Baroda: 302 trail Andhra Pradesh: 328/3 by 26 runs; Rajasthan: 198 lead Bengal: 136/3 by 62 runs; Tripura: 61 & 245 lose to Goa: 257 & 50/1 (25.1 ov, target 50) by 9 wickets; Hyderabad: 434 lead Himachal Pradesh: 402/5 by 32 runs; Karnataka: 350 & 93/1 lead Vidarbha: 310 by 133 runs; Jharkhand: 202 & 262 vs Kerala: 148 & 71/1 (target 317); Tamil Nadu: 434 & 73/7) lead Mumbai: 294 by 213 runs; Assam: 92 & 137 lose to Odisha: 88 & 142/2 (target 142) by 8 wickets; Gujarat: 467 lead Punjab: 434/5 by 33 runs; Railways: 375 & 155/3 lead Uttar Pradesh: 264 by 266 runs.