Delhi needed a victory against Services in their last league match to make it to pre-quarters, but that one turned into a no-contest. The more engrossing battle, by far, was between the home side’s openers — Aakash Chopra and Shikhar Dhawan.Delhi were chasing 205, while Chopra and Dhawan were chasing each other to three-figure marks. Both started cautiously, focusing on singles and rotating the strike, but the fireworks started soon enough, signalling the beginning of the race. It was Dhawan who got their first, finishing with 100 off 70 balls (13x4, 3x6), while Chopra ended up with 101 off 93 (17x4, 1x6) as Delhi recorded their second 10-wicket win in five games in the Ranji ODIs.Both got to the three-figure mark in similar fashion. A straight drive from the dashing left-hand bat got him his second century. Then, with Delhi needing just one run to win, and Chopra requiring three to reach his century, a flighted delivery from left-arm spinner Abhishek Sinha was given the treatment. Chopra stepped out and hit over the bowler’s head for his century.The Services bowlers were hardly effective, getting neither their line nor their length right. In the 24th over off spinner Arnav Kush was hit for 23 runs. Dhawan hit him thrice to the square-leg boundary, before Chopra hit one over mid-off for six. Then he sent him to the cover boundary. In between, there was an out-of-place single. Earlier, a 100-run fifth-wicket partnership between Yashpal Singh (71) and Soumik Chatterjee (58) helped Services reach 204. Brief Scores: Services 204/6 (Yashpal Singh 71, Soumik Chatterjee 58; A Bhandari 2/45) lost to Delhi 208 (Aakash Chopra 101, Shikhar Dhawan 100)
