Fiery Awana routs Maharashtra as Delhi eye big win

Making Maharashtra’s batsmen play more deliveries than they would have wished,Delhi’s bowlers stuck to a disciplined line and length,earning instant rewards.

Delhi seamers on roll
In an inspired spell of fast bowling,Awana used the conditions to his favour exceedingly well. Pitching the ball a little fuller and slower than the others,he allowed the ball the move in the air and seam both ways after pitching. Khadiwale was Awana’s first victim of the day,the ball nipping back sharply to shatter his stumps when on 10. Rohan Bhosale tried to flick one off his pads,but the moving ball caught a leading edge and lobbed right back to Awana,who latched on to a sharp return catch.

Ankit Bavne was next in line,trapped in front of the stumps. Ankur Julka picked up two smart catches — wicketkeeper Rohit Motwani was snapped up at third slip and Kiran Adhav at short-leg — to help Awana complete a fiver. Awana’s spell had meant Delhi had a lead of more than 255 runs with more than two days to go and Kohli enforced the follow-on without a doubt in his mind.

Pradeep Sangwan,who had nothing to show in his wickets column in the first innings,trapped opener Rohan Bhosale to open his account for the match. Khadiwale,unbeaten on 18 looked relieved to leave the field when the umpires offered him the light.

Fallah strikes
Earlier,Delhi resumed the day with the score comfortably placed on 344/4. Manhas added just two more runs to his overnight 168,but by then the damage had been done. Manhas’s wicket led to a collapse,with the last six wickets falling for 70 runs. Samad Fallah was the pick of the bowlers for the visitors with 5/121,while his opening bowling partner Jitendra Patil finished with 4/115.

In all,17 wickets fell for 280 runs on Wednesday. With the ball still moving around,Khadiwale will need a miracle to stop Delhi from earning all six points.