Delhi cricket continued to plummet as the team suffered its third loss in as many matches.
Maharashtra, propelled by some superb form of its batsman, found a century-maker in Kedar Jadhav and won the Vijay Hazare cricket tournament match at the DRIEMS ground here on Tuesday by 195 runs.
For Maharashtra, this was the third successive win with the stars of the day being Jadhav (113 off 64 balls) and left-arm spinner Jagdish Zope (five for 19).
Delhi erred in fielding first. The surface was a beauty to bat on and Maharashtra crossed the 300-mark again despite losing in-form Ruturaj Gaikwad (9) in the seventh over of the innings. Ashish Nehra claimed Gaikwad but suffered a groin strain in his seventh over and his absence had an impact on the overall performance of Delhi.
After Vijay Zol fell at the score of 79 Maharashtra strengthened its position through a third-wicket partnership of 107 runs between Naushad Shaikh (52 off 64 balls with eight 4s) and Jadhav (11 fours and eight 6s).
Jadhav timed the ball flawlessly and found the gaps at will as Delhi lacked the will to fight. The bowling had been an area of grave concern and skipper Rishabh Pant could only watch helplessly as the ordinary Delhi attack stood exposed against the innovating Jadhav at the crease.
Nikhil Naik and Jadhav contributed 60 runs for the fourth wicket to put Maharashtra in a strong position even as Delhi employed seven bowlers.
Once again left-arm seamer Kulwant Khejroliya was the pick of the bowlers with a spell of 10-0-35-2. Left-arm spinner Pawan Negi, clearly short of confidence, proved the most expensive with a spell of 8-0-91-1.
Delhi coach K.P. Bhaskar had been worried in the run up to the tournament about the bowling acumen of his team and his fears proved right. Seamer Navdeep Saini (two for 76) and left-arm spinner Manan Sharma (none for 70) came a cropper as Delhi struggled to stay in the reckoning.
A target of 368 was always going to be tough for Delhi unless veterans Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan laid the platform for the chase. They began with a flourish but Dhawan (24) getting run out at 64 and the promising Dhruv Shorey (1) falling within a run proved a huge dampener for Delhi.
Gambhir’s knock
Gambhir managed to come up with a 57-ball 53 but the cheap dismissals of Pant and Nitish Rana completed Delhi’s woes. Milind Kumar helped himself to a few runs in the latter half but Delhi was outclassed by a far superior and organised opponent.
The scores: Maharashtra 367 for eight in 50 overs (Kedar Jadhav 113, Nikhil Naik 63, Naushad Shaikh 52, Vijay Zol 35) bt Delhi 172 in 33.4 overs (Gautam Gambhir 53, Milind Kumar 38, Jagdish Zope five for 19).
