Delhi struggle despite Narwals 7-wicket haul

As his team mates stood waiting for Sumit Narwal at the end of the days play,the seamer seemed to suddenly remember something.

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As his team mates stood waiting for Sumit Narwal at the end of the days play,the seamer seemed to suddenly remember something. Running up to the umpires,he appeared to request something; a request they had no problem acceeding to. With his seven-wicket burst in 20 overs at the Roshanara Club ground on Friday,it was time for Narwal to add to his modest collection of five red balls,one for every five-wicket haul he has managed so far.

But despite Narwals efforts to restrict Railways to 166 in their second innings and a modest 136-run target,Delhi would be more

concerned than elated. The hosts were 48/4 at stumps,with a likely-but-not-looked-forward-to early finish on Day Five,Railways seamer Anureet Singh crashing in with three quick wickets to make it a contest.

Except for the last half hour of play,it was Narwals day. His wicket count began on the first ball of the morning,forcing Faiz Fazal to edge one back to wicketkeeper Puneet Bisht. Railways soon lost first innings centurion Shreyas Khanolkar as well and would have been sans Sanjay Bangar even before wiping off Delhis first innings lead of 31 if Aditya Jain hadnt dropped a sitter at third slip off Pradeep Sangwan.

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But there was no such bad luck for Narwal,who struck again when he got debutant Rakesh Mishra to edge to first slip,making good use of the conditions and swinging the ball both ways in a spell of 7-1-22-4. The next four wickets to fall were also picked up by Narwal,making it a solo effort from the Delhi seamer despite a fighting fifth-wicket partnership of 90 between Bangar and Mahesh Rawat. In contrast was Delhis fielding,abysmal to the extent of being embarrasing,providing Bangar with three chances in his innings of 67. Bangar was finally cleaned up with a vicious delivery that came in.

But if the target was easy,Delhis response was irresponsible. Shikhar Dhawan pulled an Anureet delivery and holed out to Harshad Rawle at mid-on. Unmukt Chand continued his strokes from the first innings with three cover-drives but couldnt manage the run flow. Aditya Jain and Mayank Tehlan too didnt survive long before Rajat Bhatia and Gaurav Chabbra batted out the last minutes,avoiding the swinging deliveries and frantic appeals from the Railways players.

Brief scores: Railways 259 & 166 (Sanjay Bangar 67,Mahesh Rawat 50; Sumit Narwal 7/43) vs Delhi 290 & 48/4 (Unmukt Chand 22,Shikhar Dhawan 14; Anureet Singh 3/24)