Awana on the mark

They call him the Harolla Express. Always quick but mostly haywire, he used to be banished from all his village cricket matches for inflicting serious injuries to batsmen with short-pitched deliveries. Parvinder Awana has made rapid strides in a short but eventful career - from a finalist in a speedster hunt to a hat-trick last year - but this season, his bowling has progressed from intuitive to intelligent.

On a good wicket for batting, Awana held his pace back and bowled the right lengths to pick up four wickets in 19 overs to keep Saurashtra's much-vaunted batting line-up down to 234 for nine on the first day of Delhi's must-win Ranji Trophy match.

After two early wickets, the loud cheers to welcome Cheteshwar Pujara were replaced by a lull 58 minutes later, as he was run out for 15 after a misunderstanding with non-striker Bhushan Chauhan. With the danger-man gone, Chauhan and Ravinder Jadeja put on 81 runs for the fourth wicket, but things tilted in favour of the visitors as Jadeja played on and skipper Jaydev Shah nicked one to the keeper, both off Awana.

With the end in sight, Chopra took the second new ball after 82.3 overs and Awana quickly accounted for Sandeep Jobanputra. Last-man Balakrishna Jadeja survived some anxious moments alongside Kamlesh Makwana, but Delhi will be wary of rejoicing just yet. It's the batsmen who have been flunking the test so far, and they can't afford another slip-up in the race for qualification.