Delhi advance as per script

Very soon,the other combination of Rajat Bhatia and Pradeep Sangwan made it 56 for six and it could well have been 61 for seven,had Dhawan held Ashish Yadav at first slip off Awana’s second spell. Railways required that let-up to avoid total embarrassment.

Yadav,along with Dhiren Salvi stitched together a seventh wicket partnership of 52 runs as batting became easier in the afternoon,and took Railways past the three figure mark. Salvi fell trying to make use of the batting powerplay after the team had wasted the other two opportunities,hooking a ball from Bhatia to Gautam Gambhir at square-leg. Bhatia picked up three while Awana remained miserly with 20 for 2 in his 10 overs. Krishnakant Upadhayay hung in during the later stages,allowing for Yadav to fling his bat a bit,as the latter reached his half-century from 70 balls with three boundaries and a six. Yadav was the last man dismissed,for 59,as Railways were bowled out for 175.

Gambhir in action

It was a moderate total at best and it was perhaps the presence of Gambhir in the middle,and Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli in the dressing room that raised the profile of the drab quarterfinal encounter.

In the chase,Gambhir scraped the bottom in scoring 34,to follow Shikhar Dhawan’s half-century,which came off 56 balls with seven boundaries and a six. Dhawan was run out,going for a non-existent run while Mithun Manhas,who looked in good touch until then,got out to a soft dismissal.

Gambhir finally polished off the remaining runs to register a win with more than 10 overs to spare,but he would know that a sterner test in the form of Mumbai will await the team in the semifinal on Saturday.

Brief scores: Railways 175 all out in 49.1 ovs (Ashish Yadav 59; Rajat Bhatia 3/30,Parvinder Awana 2/20) lost to Delhi 178/3 in 37.4 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 69,Mohit Sharma 36,Gautam Gambhir 34 not out; Sanjay Bangar 1/31,Shivakant Shukla 1/22)