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Delhi suffers humiliating defeat

Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW: Delhi presented birthday boy Suresh Raina with three unexpected wickets on its way to a humiliating defeat by an innings and 22 runs at the hands of Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy Super League match at the Dr. Akhilesh Das Gupta Stadium here on Friday.

Delhi, resuming at 104 for one, lost its way after lunch on the fourth and final day and slumped from 208 for two to 312, five minutes before tea. It’s first-ever innings victory over Delhi fetched Uttar Pradesh six points, including a bonus. U.P. now has 12 points from four outings while Delhi remains at four from three.

Overnight batsmen Virat Kohli and Puneet Bisht continued their good work for the better part of first session. Kohli, playing with a finger injury, reached his third century in the National championship and continued to raise Delhi’s hopes until he scooped a catch to mid-on off part-time off-spinner Shivakant Shukla after making 145.

Kohli did not learn his lesson after the same bowler had dropped a return catch when he was on 138. His dismissal also ended the third-wicket stand of 207.

Good move

After lunch, Shukla was removed from the attack once the umpires pointed out to U.P. skipper Mohammad Kaif that the bowler’s action was suspect. That prompted Kaif to resume the post-lunch proceedings by introducing another part-time off-spinner in Raina. And the move worked. Raina castled Bisht for 79 and later trapped Mayank Tehlan leg-before.

All this while, the experienced Rajat Bhatia stood firm and kept alive Delhi’s fast diminishing hopes of forcing a draw. From the lower order, none stayed long. Raina got his third wicket by rattling Sumit Narwal’s stumps before leg-spinner Piyush Chawla struck twice to polish off the innings.

Bhatia helped himself to a half-century but that did not help his team’s cause.

Kaif described the victory as “huge” considering that the team had started its campaign by losing outright to Karnataka.

Delhi skipper Aakash Chopra, who is due to get married on December 2, was obviously disappointed with the result but found reasons to console himself.

The scores:

Uttar Pradesh — 1st innings: 536 for seven decl.

Delhi — 1st innings: 202.

Delhi — 2nd innings: A. Chopra c Amir b Bhuvneshwar 0, G. Chabra c Amir b Praveen 1, P. Bisht b Raina 79, V. Kohli c Gupta b Shivakant 145, R. Bhatia (not out) 56, M. Tehlan lbw b Raina 11, Abhishek Sharma (run out) 1, S. Narwal b Raina 7, P. Sangwan c Amir b Chawla 1, P. Awana b Chawla 6, S. Dhawan (did not bat); Extras (b-5): 5; Total (in 99 overs): 312.

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-1, 3-208, 4-237, 5-257, 6-271, 8-285, 9-290.

Uttar Pradesh bowling: Praveen 13-3-46-1, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 12-0-54-1, R.P. Singh 14-4-42-0, Chawla 24-1-67-2, Gupta 12-2-30-0, Shivakant 7-0-37-1, Raina 17-6-31-3.

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