Ishant Sharma’s opening spell brought Maharashtra to its knees and some poor stroke-selection by the late-order left the visitors staring at the follow-on against an upbeat Delhi in the crucial Ranji Trophy Group A match here on Saturday.
After Delhi reached 419, with overnight centurion Nitish Rana scoring a career-best 174, the Delhi skipper struck thrice in quick succession to reduce Maharashtra to 14 for four. Needing 270 to make Delhi bat again, Maharashtra was tottering at 59 for eight in 25 overs at stumps.
Play was halted due to poor light when Maharashtra was 56 for six. But, soon the light improved and play resumed. Delhi bowlers made the most of the available time and struck twice to compound Maharashtra’s woes.
Lack of application
Ishant sliced through the Maharashtra top order by sending back openers Ruturaj Gaikwad, Murtaza Trunkwala and one-down Rahul Tripathi. Known to score big on placid tracks, the Maharashtra batsmen showed total lack of application to deal with the bounce and pace generated by Ishant and offered catches to the slip cordon and gully.
From the other end, Navdeep Saini sent back the reliable duo of Ankeet Bawane and Rohit Motwani to break Maharashtra’s back. In fading light, debutant Lalit Yadav, who scored a strokeful 52 earlier in the day, scalped took two wickets to complete Delhi’s day.
What is going to hurt Maharashtra more is the fact that first it let Delhi get away from 55 for three to beyond 400 and then lost eight wickets in quick time to stare at defeat at the halfway stage.
In contrast to Maharashtra’s poor batting, Rana and Yadav put on 104 runs for the sixth wicket to put Delhi in a strong position. Rana smashed four sixes and 18 boundaries during the knock that bettered his previous high of 146 scored against Assam in Baroda in October last year. Yadav showed no signs of nerves for a debutant and cracked 10 boundaries in his 94-ball knock.
From now on, only a monumental effort from Maharashtra can deny Delhi a possible victory.
The scores:
Delhi — 1st innings: Anuj Rawat c Naushad b Dadhe 20, Gautam Gambhir lbw b Dhumal 1, Dhruv Shorey c Gaikwad b Khurana 7, Nitish Rana c (sub) b Bacchav 174, Rishabh Pant c Bawane b Khurana 99, Milind Kumar lbw b Dadhe 13, Lalit Yadav lbw b Bacchav 52, Manan Sharma c (sub) b Khurana 14, Navdeep Saini lbw b Bacchav 0, Ishant Sharma c(sub) b Bacchav 6, Vikas Mishra (not out) 2; Extras (b-22, lb-8, nb-1): 31, Total (in 111.1 overs): 419.
Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-26, 3-55, 4-223, 5-281, 6-385, 7-400, 8-401, 9-407.
Maharashtra bowling: Nikit Dhumal 23-5-69-1, Pradeep Dadhe 19-3-77-2, Chirag Khurana 30.1-2-106-3, Shamshuzama Mujtaba Kazi 7-0-41-0, Rahul Tripathi 3-0-9-0, Satyajeet Bachhav 29-5-87-4.
Maharashtra — 1st innings: Ruturaj Gaikwad c Pant b Ishant 0, Murtaza Trunkwala c Manan b Ishant 2, Rahul Tripathi c Rana b Ishant 10, Ankeet Bawne c Lalit Yadav b Saini 2, Rohit Motwani c Manan b Saini 12, Naushad Shaikh c Rawat b Lalit Yadav 23, Satyajeet Bachhav c Saini b Lalit Yadav 0, Chirag Khurana (batting) 3, Shamsuzama Mujtaba Kazi (batting) 0; Extras (b-2, lb-4): 6; Total (for eight wkts. in 25 overs): 59.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-7, 3-10, 4-14, 5-51, 6-56, 7-58, 8-59.
Delhi bowling: Ishant Sharma 6-2-14-3, Navdeep Saini 8-2-21-2, Vikas Mishra 5-2-12-0, Manan Sharma 3-0-4-1, Lalit Yadav 3-1-2-2.
