The Delhi-Madhya Pradesh game will struggle to get the attention it deserves,with the big brothers landing up in Indore tomorrow for the international fixture,but the teams stations on the points table,the ground,the track and the personnel will make it an intriguing contest. Delhi and Madhya Pradesh have had a roller coaster season thus far,turning outright defeats to phenomenal victories,languishing in the bottom two of the table only to rise up and occupy the top two slots currently in a group where four teams sit on eight points each. In its last match MP registered an outright win over Gujarat,against whom Delhi had suffered an innings defeat previously. Delhi then went on to win its next game against Baroda,who had,incidendtally,thrashed MP after bowling the side out for 63. Makings of a classic After this bout of give and take,the sides,who both nurse ambitions of a knock-out spot,find themselves in a do-or-die match,which has all the makings of a classic. The Group B game will be played on one extreme corner of the main square,and the batsmen will have to judge their singles on the shorter side of the boundary. The bowlers,in the stifling heat,will dread to err on line. Delhi coach Sanjeev Sharma,who not long back had been the player-coach of MP and even now remains an advisor to one of the districts,cant really make up his mind about the pitch; neither can Mithun Manhas,nor MP skipper Devendra Bundela himself. And for good reason. There is rooted grass spread around on one end while the other end is bald. A small ridge will keep the batsmen guessing and its the same pitch,though not as fresh or moist,as the track that helped the MP seamers pick up an outright win in the previous game. If the track responds to the speedsters in a similar fashion,Ashish Nehra,who rested doubts over his availability when he checked in at 8 pm,along with the fiery Parvinder Awana,will be a handful. The pace bowling duo has taken 16 wickets in the last game and will be happy to hunt in a pair again. Pradeep Sangwan,who has recovered from injury and Vikas Mishra,who had a limited role in the last match against Baroda,will also look to contribute. Opening worries Delhis biggest worry though,has been its openers this season. Unmukt Chand and Shikhar Dhawan have individually got runs but failed collectively. Their compulsive stroke-making has often put the team under pressure and it has taken the calm of skipper Mithun Manhas and Punit Bisht,who scored an unbeaten double hundred last game,to bring the situation under control. MP who have come out of the Plate league and into the Elite league this year,have,on the other hand,been served well by the duo of Naman Ojha and Jalaj Saxena at the top. Mohnish Mishra,Bundela and the young Udit Birla have been the hosts middle-order mainstays. Though the side will miss the services of Abbas Ali,who has opted out for personal reasons,veteran all-rounder T Sudhindra has been in good nick. Pacer Ishwar Pandey,the architect of MPs win last game,will eye another fruitful outing alongside a battery of other seamers,though Delhis bowling attack both pace and spin looks a better unit. The Delhi team made an ardous journey back to the city centre through broken roads,dotted with huge billboards of Virat Kohli,Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. The side will soon be at full strength in Indore,though ironically,it will be off the field. Delhi,however,is now used to life without them.
