Delhi on the backfoot

The expectations of the large crowd — numbering a few hundreds — at the Ferozshah Kotla which had come to watch the ‘new star...

The expectations of the large crowd — numbering a few hundreds — at the Ferozshah Kotla which had come to watch the ‘new star on the Indian horizon’ in action on the field, evaporated in the space of four deliveries and four minutes today.

Virender Sehwag’s return to domestic cricket after a gap of two years lasted a mere four deliveries as the star batsman was dismissed without scoring to the great disappointment of his young fans who had thronged the stadium braving the scorching summer heat of the Capital.

SCOREBOARD

Tamil Nadu (1st Innings): Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan c NS Negi b Bhandari 27; S Ramesh c Bhandari b Sanjay Gill 82; S Sriram c Aakash Chopra b Sanghvi 33; S Suresh c Bhandari b Sanghvi 35; H Badani c Sehwag b Sarandeep Singh 63; S Sharath lbw Sanjay Gill 6; Vasanth Saravanan c Manhas b Bhandari 39; M R Shrinivas not out 17; D Dandapani c Dahiya b Bhandari 1; P Raaju st Dahiya b Sanghvi 0; L Balaji c Varun Kumar b Negi 1.
Extras (b3, lb8, w2, nb10): 23; Total: 327.
Fall of wickets: 1-36, 2-101, 3-163, 4-228, 5-244, 6-299, 7-315, 8-317, 9-318.
Bowling: A Bhandari 29-7-72-3, Sanjay Gill 26-8-53-2, NS Negi 18.4-5-55-1, Sarandeep Singh 29-5-74-1, R Sanghvi 13-4-26-3, V Sehwag 10-2-27-0, M Manhas 3-0-9-0.

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Delhi (1st Innings): Aakash Chopra lbw Suresh 30; Gautam Gambhir c Raaju b Balaji 31; V Sehwag b M R Shrinivas 0; M Manhas batting 20; Varun Kumar c Raaju b Dandapani 12; V Dahiya batting 19.
Extras (lb2, w2, nb 11): 15; Total (for 4 wkts): 127.
Fall of wickets: 1-58, 2-59, 3-75, 4-96.
Bowling: L Balaji 15-5-42-1, M R Shrinivas 11-3-27-1, S Suresh 8-3-21-1, Dandapani 12-5-31-1, Vidyut 3-1-4-0.

Coming at the fall of opener Gautam Gambhir at 58, Sehwag played medium pacer M R Shrinivas defensively with the middle of the bat and then watched the ball roll back on to his stumps. A prize wicket for the visitors!

By the close of the second day of the Elite Ranji Trophy semifinal, the hosts had lost two more wickets to be placed precariously at 127 for four, exactly 200 runs behind the visitors’ first innings total.

Mithun Manhas (20: 4×4,117m) and skipper Vijay Dahiya (19:3×4,60m) defied the Tamil Nadu bowlers and denied them further success even as the day’s play was extended 45 minutes beyond the scheduled time to bowl the quota of overs for the day.

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Left-handed Gambhir (31:4×4,95m) perished to a beautiful rising outswinger from Lakshmipathy Balaji, guiding it to the ’keeper’s safe hands. Aakash Chopra (30:5×4,135m) fell leg before to Suresh while Varun Kumar seemed unlucky to be declared caught behind off the bowling of offie Dandapani even as the batsman conveyed to the umpires that the ball had struck his pads.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu, resuming at the overnight score of 252-5, added a further 75 before being dismissed shortly after lunch. Hemang Badani (63:9×4,230m) and Vasanth Saravanan (39:5×4,1×6,143m) put on 55 runs for the sixth wicket. Amit Bhandari and Rahul Sanghvi finished with three wickets each while Sanjay Gill (2) NS Negi and Sarandeep shared the rest of wickets.

Delhi’s hopes of a revival now depend largely on the two not out batsmen. With the odd ball keeping low, stroke-making will not be an easy proposition on the third day tomorrow.