Delhi off to impressive start

NEW DELHI: After the end of Punjab's first innings, an hour before tea on Day 2 in the Ranji Trophy Super League match at the Roshanara Club, it
looked like Delhi were going to feel the heat while chasing down the total of 391 to ensure a first innings lead. But the comfort with which Delhi openers - Aakash Chopra (67 off 115 balls, 10x4) and Shikhar Dhawan (64 off 87 balls, 9x4) - batted, dispelled all doubts.

On Tuesday, at stumps, Delhi were 142 without loss, with the first innings lead looking firmly in their grip, unless they fritter away the gains from such a solid start.

Punjab, overnight 237, added another 154 to their total before closing their innings with the aid of Delhi's slipshod fielding and 20-year-old Uday Kaul's (95 off 235 balls with 12 4s) show of maturity. Uday formed a 102-run sixth-wicket partnership with Ankur Kakkar, and then raised 40 with Manpreet Singh Gony and another 42 in company of his brother Siddharth Kaul.

Uday looked well-balanced at the crease and when the ball was pitched up, he launched into some breathtaking drives, both sides of the wicket. His sibling Siddarth, taken in the team primarily as a pacer, proved to be an able partner and showed that he is no novice with the bat. Uday was dropped by ‘keeper Puneet Bisht on 85 off Amit Bhandari's bowling on the second ball after lunch but Bisht made amends by pouching a similar one, soon after.

"I would've wanted to get the opposition out much quicker... at least 50 runs less than what they managed, but many chances went abegging. I felt sorry for our bowlers who were bowling their heart out in unhelpful conditions. But that's part and parcel of the game I guess, and we have to forget what we couldn't do at the start of the day and focus on what we can do," said Vijay Dahiya, coach of the Delhi team.

"The way we have batted shows we are not overtly bothered about what we failed to achieve through our bowling and instead got on with the business. It shows the confidence that we have in our batting. The two batsmen at the crease, Shikhar and Aakash, have scored plenty of runs in the last season. And whatever warm-up games we have had leading up to this game, they look like they are in the form of the last season. The left-right combination is also working well," observed Dahiya.

TN pair misses record
Murali Vijay and A Mukund of Tamil Nadu missed the opening wicket Ranji Trophy record by two runs. The two added 462 against Maharashtra at Nashik, with Mukund remaining unbeaten on 300 and M Vijay contributing 243.

The highest first wicket stand of 464 remains in the name of Delhi pair of Ravi Sehgal and late Raman Lamba against HP in Delhi in 1994-95. TNN

Super League brief scores
Group A: Delhi: Punjab 391 (S Sohal 110, Uday Kaul 95, A Kakkar 56, P Sangwan 4-102). Delhi 142/0 (A Chopra 67 no, S Dhawan 64 no).
Mumbai: Mumbai 307 (W Jaffer 60, A Rahane 73, R Sharma 62) and 30/2 (S Kukreja 19 no, S Mathur 2-10) Rajasthan 204 (V Saxena 76, D Kulkarni 5-40, R Powar 5-44). Mumbai lead by 133 runs.
Cuttack: Hyderabad 296 (D Ravi Teja 71, SA Pai 78, Abhinav Kumar 99, D Mohanty 3-63, B Mohanty 3-81, Preetamjit Das 3-59). Orissa 150/3 (SS Das 75 no, BS Pati 37, A Shinde 2-16).
Rajkot: Gujarat 581 (B Thaker 192, T Patel 104 no, S Jobanputra 3-140) Saurashtra 8/4 (SK Trivedi 4-7).
Group B: Nashik: Tamil Nadu 648/3 (M Vijay 243, A Mukund 300 no, S Vidyut 59). Maharashtra 154/1 (A Shrikhande 64 no, R Bhonsle 42 no, H Khadiwale 41).
Meerut: Andhra 365 (AG Pradeep 102 no, LNP Reddy 94, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar 5-58). UP 76/2.
Bangalore: Karnataka 365 (R Uthappa 131, M Pandey 64, M Karthik 5-83). Railways 102/4 (S Bangar 53).

Source: cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com