Delhi complete formalities

And nothing happened in the match that meandered to a dull draw,except for the Delhi tail’s successful bid in avoiding the follow-on despite some relentless bowling by the hosts at the Jadavpur University grounds here.

When Delhi resumed play on the final morning,they were still 25 runs adrift of avoiding the ignominy of batting again. But their tailenders warded off the danger in the first hour’s play with some cautious batting. Credit should go to stumper Punit Bisht (128 not out),who,after slogging for a well-deserved century the previous day to ensure Delhi were not bowled out cheaply,continued to hold one end up,hanging around till the end.

Chasing Bengal’s first innings score of 522,Delhi needed to score at least 373 to avoid follow-on — they were dismissed for 378,escaping the blushes by just five runs. While Bisht saw Delhi through,the rest of the Delhi tail supported him just long enough —Ishant Sharma was out for his overnight score of 16 but Parwinder Awana (2) tapped around for a while and Vikas Mishra played out 52 critical minutes for his two runs.

Bengal left-arm spinner Iresh Saxena (5/72) mopped up the three wickets to fall in the morning,but his effort wasn’t good enough to enforce the follow-on. After that,it was only a matter of going through the motions as Bengal made 223 for the loss of three wickets in their second essay,with opener Arindam Das posting 102 and southpaw Rohan Banerjee scoring an entertaining 77.

Having picked up a point after drawing the match,Delhi officially secured their place in the quarterfinals,while Bengal,already out of the relegation scare,will be happy to have ended their Ranji Trophy campaign on a positive note.

Brief score:Bengal 522 and 227/3 (Arindam Das 102 retd,Rohan Banerejee 77) vs Delhi 378 (Punit Bisht 128 not out,Mithun Manhas 88,Iresh Saxena 5/72,Ranadeb Bose 3/81).