It was all nicely set up, but the question was when was it to happen? The answer came when Mahesh Rawat ended his resistance after a 73-run knock, caught by Mayank Tehlan off Virender Sehwag, nine minutes before lunch. Haryana mustered a face-saving total of 251 in 59.2 overs, adding 146 runs to their overnight tally in bargain for their remaining four wickets. Delhi’s first outright win came in their last match, in true-blue style, inside seven sessions of play and with a bonus point. Delhi now have 13 points from the season, still four points short of entering the qualifying stages in their group. As the entire Delhi team sat listening to skipper Sehwag and coach Chetan Chauhan in a team meeting over lunch, they knew in hindsight where they lacked spark. Perhaps in strategy, team combination, co-ordination, but definitely not in performance — their top seven batsmen all scored hundreds this season and their bowlers all have a neat kitty of wickets tucked away. They go back, packing their bags, a trio flickering with hope of being in the national team while each others proving their own little point only to regroup for the one-dayers with sparkling yellow and blue coloured kits in a few days time — still unsure of an improved performance. Haryana played rank bad cricket through the season, mistaking positive attitude with arrogant shot-selection and playing days’ cricket in inexplicable urgency. Even when the third day opened, the most experienced and ‘performing’ batting pair of Joginder Sharma and Mahesh Rawat made little change in their batting style — looking to cut, pull, drive, slam every ball. Rawat got past his half-century with eight defined hits to the boundary ropes and one over it. Chetanya Nanda got the wickets of Amit Mishra and Tejinder Mann, to finish with six wickets in the innings — overall nine wickets in the match. Delhi’s highest wicket-taker last season (30 wickets), second highest of the zone, Nanda, playing his 12th match in his third season got a shabby treatment, getting dropped in between. But here he got the wicket of his liking, and he spun big, getting batsmen to induce snicks in the slip region.He damaged his figures a bit, getting hit for a few lusty shots from that ninth wicket stand of 57 runs between Rawat and Tejinder in an extra effort to get to his first ten-wicket haul but it is no excuse for his 16 no-balls, 19 overall here. As the match reached a silent end and players engaged in customary shaking of hands, a particular man stood there with a stoic expression on his face. Joginder wasn’t sure if his team still stood in the Elite division or had been dumped into Plate after a pathetic show. And he wasn’t yet sure if his standout performance in the season will earn him a place in the Indian squad or not. The team’s fate will be known tomorrow, on the outcome of Tamil Nadu-Baroda match (with Tamil Nadu needing just 87 for victory, Haryana’s fate is virtually sealed).Brief scores: Delhi 382 won by innings and 18 runs vs Haryana 113 and 251 all out in 59.2 overs (M Rawat 73, Joginder Sharma 44; Chetanya Nanda 6/112, Virender Sehwag 4/63)At other centres • Punjab-HyderabadPunjab 142 and 245 (Dharmani 78, Kaul 61; MP Arjun 3/53) lost to Hyderabad 251 and 137/9 (Anirudh Singh 40, Gagandeep Singh 4/28)• Andhra-Uttar PradeshAndhra 111 and 132 (Sahabuddin 60; RP Singh 5/49, A Murtaza 2/9) lost to Uttar Pradesh 346 (Amir Khan 70, Ravikant Shukla 54; Y Gnaneswara Rao 3/8)• Baroda-TNBaroda 263 and 191 (Pathan 36, Bhoite 30; R Ashwin 6/30) vs Tamil Nadu 342 and 26/1 (M Vijay 121, Badrinath 89; Irfan Pathan 4/59)Plate Group semi-finals• Assam-OrissaAssam 235 and 100/6 (Aziz 50; Sehgal 2/1, Mohanty 3/29) vs Orissa 233• Railways-Himachal PradeshRailways 229 vs Himachal Pradesh 346/7 (Sandeep Sharma 161, Mukesh Sharma 44 batting)
