With batting collapses being the main feature of the ongoing Ranji Trophy semi-finals being played on neutral venues, old hand Mithun Manhas stood out with his performance. His innings of 97 runs helped Delhi take a 72-run lead against Baroda at the end of the second day's play here. Replying to Baroda’s 199, Delhi made 271. Manhas’ 131-run association with Aditya Jain (48) went a long way in changing the script of the game that has averaged 10 wickets per day. Manhas’ resolute play ensured that the experienced Baroda spinners Rajesh Pawar and Yousuf Pathan failed to make inroads after the pacers had cracked open the high-profile Delhi batting line-up. Manhas took his Ranji run tally for this season to 562 today. He got things moving by dominating the spinners. He slammed two fours in the left-arm spinner Pawar's first over. With Manhas keeping strike maximum time, Jain played second fiddle. This tactic went a long way in Delhi taking the first innings lead. “If anyone would have gone out then there were chances that we would have collapsed early. We were desperately looking for the lead and know we have the advantage,” said Manhas With Manhas and Jain back to the pavilion when the score read 163, all rounder Rajat Bhatia (38), Punit Bisht (24) and southpaw Sumit Narwal (34) chipped in to help Delhi post 271 in 102.3 overs. While the experienced spin attack not delivering the goods, Baroda 's rookie pacer Sankalp Vora came to their rescue. The left-armers disciplined spell helped him finish with an impressive bowling figures of 21.3-6-39-4. At stumps Baroda were unbeaten at eight runs on the board with skipper Connor Williams (0) and Satyajit Parab (8) at the crease. Brief scores: Baroda: 199 and 8/0 vs Delhi: 271 (M Manhas 97, Aditya Jain 48, P Bisht 24, S Narwal 34; Sumit Singh 2/60, S Vohra 4/39, R Pawar 2/68)
