Emphatic win for Delhi

Rajkot: Saurashtra’s Ravindra Jadeja played magnificently for nearly four hours, but Delhi faced the crunch situation with guts and gumption and emerged winner in the Ranji Trophy Super League match at the Race Course ground here on Monday. Delhi got six points for the outright victory.

The defending champion capitalised on an error by Chirag Pathak at the square leg, spilling a straight forward chance that came off a fierce flick by left-hander Shikar Dhawan off left-arm seamer Balkrishna Jadeja, in the fourth innings.

Set a comfortable target of 132 in 27 overs, it would have been a setback had Pathak taken control of the catch after Akash Chopra and Dhawan had opened their account with a single in the first over, but enjoying the early reprieve, the left-hander blazed to a spectacular undefeated 84 with eight 4s and two 6s.

Awana shines

Earlier, Parvinder Awana brought much happiness to the Delhi camp, bagging five wickets for his first 10-wicket haul in his 10th match of the competition. It was a worthy achievement by a fast medium bowler, who not long ago won the Mahindra Speedster award.

Awana’s outstanding performance with the ball allied with impressive work by wicketkeeper Punit Bisht has given Delhi a ray of hope to extend its first class season beyond next week when it locks horns with Rajasthan at Jaipur.

On the other hand, Saurashtra (18 points) has to look for maxium points against Hyderabad in the match starting here on Thursday. The fight is now between Delhi and Saurashtra to clinch the third place for the quarterfinals from Group ‘A’. Delhi has 17 points from six leagues matches.

There was plenty of drama on Monday when the overnight pair Sitanshu Kotak and Cheteshwar Pujara kept Delhi at bay for 35 minutes. The complexion of the game changed when Awana bent his back to extract bounce and a little deviation off the pitch to dismiss Kotak and thereafter dangerman Pujara from the middle.

A collapse after Jaydev Shah sliced a nick to Virat Kohli in the cordon was averted by a brilliant counterattack by Jadeja whose 143, in seven minutes short of four hours and 166 balls with 22 delightful hits to the fence, paved the way for Saurashtra to set a modest target.

The scores:

Saurashtra — Ist innings: 241.

Delhi — Ist innings: 384.

Saurashtra — 2nd innings: C. Pathak lbw b Narwal 2, B. Chauhan c Bisht b Narwal 22, S. Kotak c Bisht b Awana 18, C. Pujara c Bisht b Awana 25, R. Jadeja c & b Awana 143, J. Shah c Kohli b Sangwan 1, S. Jogiyani lbw b Nanda 26, R. Dhruv c Dhawan b Awana 17, K. Makwana c Bisht b Awana 0, S. Jobanputra c Bisht b Nagar 3, B. Jadeja (not out) 0, Extras (b-8, lb-1, nb-7, w-1): 17; Total (in 87.3 overs) 274.

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-38, 3-72, 4-83, 5-85, 6-173, 7-212, 8-218, 9-253.

Delhi bowling: Narwal 18-2-58-2, Awana 22.3-3-77-5, Sangwan 14-2-51-1, Nanda 23-6-54-1, Nagar 10-2-25-1.

Delhi — 2nd innings: A. Chopra (not out) 42, S. Dhawan (not out) 84, Extras (b-6) 6; Total (for no loss in 21 overs) 132.

Saurashtra bowling: Jobanputra 4-0-24-0, B. Jadeja 4-0-42-0, R. Jadeja 4-0-16-0, Makwana 6-1-29-0, Dhruv 3-0-15-0.