Mayank shows will, others their back

Mayank Tehlan, who was indisposed — Aditya Jain was padded up and ready to go at No. 3 — showed the will but the problem for Delhi came in when, after winning the toss and opting to bat, the famed quartet of Aakash Chopra, Shikhar Dhawan, Mitthun Manhas, Virat Kohli and Rajat Bhatia succumbed to their own mistakes. Thus, Delhi closed the opening day at 247/5 — still 100 runs short of their re-adjusted, re-assessed ‘bare minimum total’ giving room for the hosts to smile despite a 298-minute concerted effort of patience and copybook aggression from Mayank, unbeaten on 91.

It has happened for the second time this season that Mayank has risen to the occasion when his place in the team has come under scrutiny. In a seemingly repetitive performance-graph like last season, the 20-year-old has been struggling to maintain his tempo after a big knock, it’s been three innings after that double hundred against Baroda this season. In between, he’s made it a point to ask for that same lucky bat from now-retired Vijay Dahiya and thus remains on course to notch what would be his second first-class hundred.

Mayank had his share of concentration lapses, but his 196-ball knock had the sustained flamboyance of front-foot play tucked in with neat backfoot punches. But the shot of the day, and the best of his 13 boundaries, came towards the last session when he thumped fast-bowler Shahbuddin straight back after planting a big stride forward.

Overall Mayank’s nine-match performance, with just one big hundred and a double ton, is a cause for concern but from Delhi’s point of view, they would want him to go on to get another big hundred when play resumes tomorrow.

Delhi were in doldrums at 34/2 when Aakash Chopra first tried to use his feet too often, the ball jumped a bit and he gave an easy catch to short-leg. Shikhar, too, was dismissed at the same score, offering no shot to a ball from left-arm spinner Lakshamana Kishore that spun viciously. Mitthun Manhas looked compact in his 42, taking the team to lunch at 88/2 but fell soon after in the fifth over trying a luxurious sweep shot, in spite of a short fine-leg just waiting for that shot.

Meanwhile, after a few customary crackling drives, Virat failed to read a slower one from pacer Krishna Kalyana and edged it to the keeper trying to play on that vacant area behind point and gully once too often inside three balls. Rajat Bhatia then misjudged a Kalyana Krishna ball that came back in sharply.

This 8-0-22-2 spell apart, the Andhra skipper was quick to realise the futility of pace and restrained the pace spearheads to the minimum, and instead introudced the spinners on with some out-of-the box field placements to create artificial pressure. Off-spinner Faiq bowled with a 3-6 field — a short-leg, leg-slip, wide silly-mid on, long-on, midwicket and square-leg on the on-side.

Delhi were forced to go with just one specialist spinner when leg-spinner Chetanya Nanda was ruled out with viral. Nanda’s replacement — Aditya Jain, a specialist bat, is standing steady at the crease at 21, but with the wicket not showing any signs of breaking up, the bowlers are in for more back-breaking spells. Delhi, too, might feel the pinch soon enough.

• Brief scores: Delhi 247/5 in 90 overs (Mayank Tehlan 91, Mitthun Manhas 42, Virat Kohli 33; D Kalyana Krishna 2/26) vs Andhra.

At other centres

• Gujarat-Maharashtra

Gujarat 200/2 (Niraj Patel 92 no, Nilesh Modi 57) vs Maharashtra.

• Karnataka-Tamil Nadu

Karnataka 309/6 (Robin Uthappa 159, Thilak Naidu 58; R Ashwin 2/59) vs Tamil Nadu.

• Hyderabad-Bengal

Hyderabad 258/6 (Arjun Yadav 79 no, Ravi Teja 57; Ashok Dinda 4/66) vs Bengal.

• Rajasthan-Mumbai

Rajasthan 155 (Vikram Solanki 77; Swapnil Hazare 4/50, A Nair 3/18) vs Mumbai 93/2 (Sahil Kukreja 30).

• Haryana-Saurashtra

Haryana 238/7 (A Mishra 61 no, S Singh 44 no, Rakesh Dhruve 71/4) vs Saurashtra.