There was no respite for Delhi as its batting came apart for the third time in succession. In spite of contrasting half-centuries from opener Unmukt Chand and Yogesh Nagar, Tamil Nadu bundled out Delhi for 212 and took control on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Elite group match at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground on Thursday.
At close, Tamil Nadu reached eight without loss in seven overs.
Electing to bat, Delhi struggled to put together partnerships on a pitch that held no surprises. With Shikhar Dhawan falling to Tamil Nadu skipper L. Balaji in the first over, Delhi once again staggered in the absence of a sound opening stand.
All credit to Balaji for not only taking three wickets but also marshalling his resources well. Medium pacer J. Kaushik and left-arm spinner Aushik Srinivas, too, struck thrice each. As a result, Delhi lost its last seven wickets in the space of 55 runs.
Once again, Unmukt missed a big one. After scoring 93 against Gujarat at Valsad last week, the India (under-19) captain let go of another opportunity to score his first century of the season. Unmukt often played away from his body to give hopes to the bowlers.
Living dangerously
A compulsive stroke-maker, Unmukt lived dangerously and was fortunate not to get an edge a few times in the first half of his innings.
Ukmukt helped himself to 14 boundaries, hitting some fine strokes on either side of the pitch. His innings ended when he was caught behind off the inside edge.
Nagar, the other half-centurion, batted with confidence. Nagar and Puneet Bisht appeared to be resurrecting partnership for the sixth wicket when Balaji sent back the latter with fine return catch.
In the following over, Srinivas struck twice in succession.
Nagar, in danger of running out of partners, reached his half-century with some big hits before being the last man to fall to an ambitious heave.
The scores: Delhi — 1st innings: Shikhar Dhawan c Vasudeva Das b Balaji 4, Unmukt Chand c Karthik b Kaushik 86, Milind Kumar b Yomahesh 16, Mithun Manhas c Vasudeva Das b Srinivas 21, Yogesh Nagar c Srinivas b Kaushik 59, Pawan Negi b Kaushik 0, Puneet Bisht c and b Balaji 16, Pradeep Sangwan lbw b Srinivas 1, Ashish Nehra lbw b Srinivas 0,Vikas Mishra b Balaji 0, P. Awana (not out) 0, Extras (lb-3, nb-6): 9, Total (in 80.5 overs) 212.
Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-35, 3-95, 4-157, 5-162, 6-194, 7-195, 8-195, 9-202.
Tamil Nadu bowling: L. Balaji 19-7-42-3, J. Kaushik 17.5-5-41-3, Yomahesh 16-3-40-1, R. Prasanna 2-0-9-0, Aushik Srinivas 18-6-48-3, B. Aparajith 8-1-29-0.
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: A. Mukund (batting) 8, M. Vijay (batting) 0, Total (for no loss in seven overs) 8.
Delhi bowling: Nehra 2-1-4-0, Awana 2-2-0-0, Mishra 2-1-4-0, Negi 1-1-0-0.
Other scores: Elite Group A: At Mohali: Saurashtra 280 for four in 90 overs (Bhushan Chauhan 68, Sagar Jogiyani 126 batting) vs. Punjab.
At Mumbai: Karnataka 316 for five in 90 overs (Robin Uthappa 49, Ganesh Satish 83, Manish Pandey 101 retd. hurt, Amit Verma 44 batting) vs. Mumbai.
At Sambalpur: Orissa 295 for three in 92 overs (Natraj Behera 53, Niranjan Behera 54, Biplab Samantray 110 batting) vs. Uttar Pradesh.
At Delhi: Rajasthan 257 for two in 92 overs (Robin Bist 85 batting, Ashok Menaria 142 batting) vs. Railways.
Elite Group B: At Vadodara: Haryana 281 for three in 90 overs (Rahul Dewan 131 batting, Nitin Saini 112) vs. Baroda.
At Kolkata: Bengal 318 for three in 90 overs (Arindam Das 105, Manoj Tiwary 136 batting) vs. Madhya Pradesh.
Plate Group A: At Vijayawada: Andhra 241 for nine in 87 overs (Hemal Watekar 69, G.K. Chiranjeevi 61, Vikramjeet Malik four for 45) vs. Himachal Pradesh.
At Kochi: Tripura 139 in 86.1 overs (Vinayak Samant 65, Sony Cheruvathur six for 40) vs. Kerala one for no loss in one over.
At Delhi: Vidarbha 265 for one in 90 overs (Akshay Kolhar 41, Aniruddha Chore 144 batting, Shiv Sundar Das 65 batting) vs. Services.
Plate Group B:
At Guwahati: Assam 131 for five in 65 overs (Sibsankar Roy 44 batting) vs. Hyderabad.
At Jammu: Goa 281 in 83.5 overs (Abhishek Raut 58, Vasanth Saravanan 43, Amit Yadav 51, Sher Yadav 51, Parvez Rassol four for 79) vs. Jammu and Kashmir 15 for no loss in four overs.
At Nasik: Maharashtra 372 for four in 90 overs (Chirag Khurana 123, Sangram Atitkar 62, Nikhil Paradkar 78 batting, Rohit Motwani 54 batting) vs. Jharkhand.
