At close of play on day 1, Delhi looked to be in command of their Group A Ranji Trophy encounter against Haryana. They had bowled out the visitors for a paltry 195 thanks to Manan Sharma’s 5/57 and in reply were calm and collected at 22 without losing either of their openers Unmukt Chand and captain Gautam Gambhir. Fast forward to 24 hours later, the hosts were on the backfoot as Haryana took a slender 26-run lead.
Harshal Patel (3/61), Ashish Hooda (3/33) and off-spinner Jayant Yadav (4/78) were the pick of the bowlers to dismiss Delhi for 237 runs with Chand (68) and Nitish Rana (48) providing nearly half of it.
In reply, Haryana captain Virender Sehwag’s flurry of gorgeous strokes propelled the visitors towards the lead as they closed play at 68/2. Sehwag was unbeaten on 29 at the end with Himanshu Rana (12) providing him company in the middle.
Gambhir was the first to go after being trapped lBW by Hooda and Mohit Ahlawat followed on the very next ball.
Nitish and Unmukt combined to put together 52 runs before the India A captain was trapped by Jayant at 68 runs.
Thereafter, Delhi’s middle order wobbled to make the most of the bowlers’ job a day prior. Yogesh Nagar (4) and Manan (4) did little to aid Delhi’s cause. The lower-order in Pradeep Sangwan (34) and Sarang Rawat (26) took Delhi over Haryana’s score but eventually Yadav lapped up the Delhi lineup.
In the final session, Delhi bowlers tried their best to swing the match again in their favour but an uncharacteristic Sehwag remained cautious much to the disappointment of the 50-odd crowd. When he did let loose, the crowd would applause and cheer - safe to say, even though he’s playing for the opposition, he’s still cherished by the home support.
Haryana’s Chaitanya Bishnoi (3) went early after being trapped lBW off part-time spinner Milind Kumar, who bagged a maiden wicket in his only over of the day, and Rahul Dewan was also trapped lBW off Sangwan for 15.
Haryana coach Surendra Bhave admitted that it’s an evenly poised game that could go either way and his batsmen have to grind it out in the middle on Saturday.
“It’s an open game. We would like to take it hour-by-hour. It needs to be a good batting day tomorrow to set up the match. It’s imperative atleast to bat till tea, if possible the whole day,” he said. Bhave also praised the bowlers for their effort, “Harshal, Hooda and even Pahal, who did the blocking job, were excellent with the ball,” he added.
Brief Scores
Haryana: 195 and 68/2 in 23 overs (Virender Sehwag 29 not out, Himanshu Rana 12 not out; Pradeep Sangwan 1-24, Milind Sharma 1-0) lead Delhi: 237 all out in 73.4 overs (Unmukt Chand 68, Nitish Rana 48; Jayant Yadav 4-78, Ashish Hooda 3-33, Harshal Patel 3-61) by 27 runs.
Punjab makes solid reply
Mohali: In-form Parthiv Patel (113) his second century in a row as Gujarat scored 467 before Punjab made a strong reply by ending the day two of their Ranji Trophy Group B match at 131 for one, here on Friday.
Resuming at 290 for three, skipper Patel and Y Venugopal Rao (95) kept the Punjab bowlers at bay, raising a 188-run stand for the fourth wicket.
Venugopal Rao missed out on his hundred when he was stumped off Jiwanjot Singh. Once that stand was broken, Punjab bowlers took wickets in heap as Gujarat lost last six wickets for just 58 runs.
Patel’s 113 came off 190 balls with 10 shots to the fence while Venugopal took 187 balls to score 95 which had 12 boundaries. leg-spinner Sarabjit ladda was the most successful bowler for Punjab with figures of five for 133 while Brainder Sran took two for 96.
Punjab came out to bat and the openers — Manan Vohra (50 batting) and Jiwanjot (51) provided a great start by raising 83 runs for the first wicket.
Jiwanjot was dismissed by off-spinner Ruzul Bhatt and then Uday Kaul (24 batting) stayed at the crease till stumps with Vohra, ensuring that the hosts do not lose any more wicket on day 2.
Brief Scores
Gujarat: 467 (Panchal 105, Parthiv Patel 113, Venugopal Rao 95, Bhatt 24; ladda 5/133, Brainder 2/96) lead Punjab: 131/1 (Jiwanjot Singh 51, Vohra 50) by 336 runs.
Karthik’s ton helps Tamil nadu
Mumbai: Wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik hit a strokeful 167 to help Tamil Nadu post a mammoth 434 on Day 2 against Ranji giants Mumbai in the Group A league encounter.
Starting on their overnight score of 249 for six at the Bandra Kurla Complex, TN rode on Karthik’s 24th first-class century, which was laced with 19 fours and a six, to overshadow Mumbai left-arm spinner Vishal Dabholkar’s five-wicket haul.
The Aditya Tare-led Mumbai were 45 for two at the end of day’s play to trail by 389 runs. TN medium-pacers Mohammed and Jagatheesan Kousik picked up a wicket each to put the hosts on the backfoot early on. For the Baba Indrajith-led side, opener Baba Aparajith (62) and Malolan Rangarajan (61) were the other contributers even as Karthik’s innings stood apart.
Dabholkar, who had pocketed 4 wickets on Thursday, took one more on Friday to record his second first-class fifer as he was ably helped by Dhawal Kulkarni and Shardul Thakur, who bagged two wickets apiece.