MP return happier after twilight fight

Delhi went into the Ranji Trophy Elite Group A league match against Madhya Pradesh seeking to boost their points tally from six after three ...

Delhi went into the Ranji Trophy Elite Group A league match against Madhya Pradesh seeking to boost their points tally from six after three games. But as luck would have it, they came very close to giving away four points on the final day at the Jamia ground here, which saw the fall of 14 wickets amidst a lot of drama on the field.

Both teams came out satisfied in the end: Delhi lucky to have conceded just two points while MP, despite a chance to earn two more points, survived some anxious moments in fading light towards the end.

Set a target of 173 to win in 54 overs (39 plus 15 mandatory), MP finished at 156-8 from 36 overs, when the umpires upheld an appeal for bad light by the not out batsmen. The result could have gone either way but MP gained more (other than the two points they earned from their first innings lead) from the match than their counterparts, as they came into the match as underdogs.

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Incidentally, both teams were docked 30 per cent of their match fees for slow over rates. The two umpires also warned Delhi captain Ajay Jadeja for ‘delaying tactics’ in the final session when MP were chasing the target.

The only plus point for Delhi from this encounter was the batting of left-handed opener Shikhar Dhawan who scored a match-saving (as it turned out to be) 88 (416m, 7×4). ‘‘It was a tremendous effort, carrying the team on his shoulders in only his first season,’’ Jadeja said of Dhawan’s knock.

The Delhi skipper listed some of the reasons for the team’s under-performance: ‘‘Our poor batting on the first day put the team on the defensive throughout. From then onwards, we were never in the hunt for four points. In hindsight, batting first was a mistake. We did not have much choice with the wicket. The injury to Sanjay Gill on the third day was a major handicap to our bowling.’’

MP skipper Amay Khurasiya, who led the team’s chase in the second innings with a 56-ball 48 before being eighth out, blamed his batsmen for not giving them a bigger first innings lead.

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Delhi take on Karnataka in the next match starting at the same venue from Monday.

Ranji Form Book

		• Baroda left-arm spinner Rajesh Pawar followed up his hat-trick yesterday with an unbeaten 95 against Hyderabad. A spinner who can bat! Good news for India, but can he continue the good work? • Amit Bhandari was on most tours last season, but always as a passenger. Today, with a tight spell that also realised three Madhya Pradesh wickets, he told the selectors that he might still be good enough for a look in, especially in ODIs. • Jaydev Shah — son of former BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah — might have had things easier than his peers. But the 21-year-old Saurashtra captain slammed a fine unbeaten 160 today against Jammu & Kashmir to prove his detractors wrong. At least to the extent that he should be a regular in the team. • Rohan Gavaskar has also been on a silencing critics’ mission. After a couple of good scores in the last two matches, he scored a patient and disciplined 70 against Mumbai today, and though that couldn’t save the match for Bengal, Rohan earned a few points for himself.