Ishant Sharma takes five,helps Delhi gain first-innings lead

Ishant’s five for 29 at an economy rate of just 1.71 was the kind of effort Delhi expected from their spearhead after they opted to play on a lively wicket at the Roshanara Club grounds.

Haryana fell short of taking the first innings lead by 63 runs (138 all out). Seasoned campaigner Rajat Bhatia picked up four wickets to make it another bowlers’ day out but of greater significance — keeping in mind the upcoming two-Test tour of South Africa — was Ishant’s performance.

Delhi had folded up for 201 early on the second day. Ishant immediately showed that he was going to make life difficult for the Haryana batsmen. Although,his first few deliveries were not well directed but he generated enough bounce and hit the deck hard. Ishant found his rhythm as early as in his second over and kept hitting the good length area. His line remained the imaginary fourth stump of the right-hander. Parwinder Awana,swinging the ball from the other end,fully supported Ishant by ensuring that there was no let up of pressure on the batsmen.

Haryana opener Nitin Saini was beaten twice on the front foot while facing Ishant and Abhimanyu Khod didn’t fare much better against the new ball. In the third over Saini edged to wicket-keeper Punit Bisht to give Ishant his first wicket.

Haryana were 8 for 1. No.3 Sunny Singh fell to Ishant when he attempted the upper cut. Once again Bist held onto the catch offered.

Soon it was clear that Ishant,who had sprayed the ball around in the ODI series against Australia,was making the best use of the helpful wicket. Delhi skipper Gambhir too was smart in rotating the bowlers to ensure that none of them were overbowled.

Later,a partnership had started to form between Sachin Rana and Joginder Sharma and they had taken Haryana from 82/6 to 128. This pair had added 46 runs in 72 balls. Rana had enjoyed a charmed life when Bist spilled a chance off the bowling of Pawan Suyal. Gambhir replaced Suyal with Ishant,who got the older ball to deviate off the seam and jag into Rana’s inner thigh on more than one occasion. Rana fell during this sharp spell from Ishant when he edged an in-dipper.

Perfect pitch map

Ishant then proceeded to trap Harshal Patel in front and also got rid of Budhwar off a short-pitched delivery. The stand out feature of Ishant’s performance on Friday was his strangulating line and length,which the pitch map available with the team’s video analyst also confirmed. The cluster of dots had formed near the off stump and it would have made for pleasant post-match viewing in the Delhi camp.

Brief Scores: Delhi 201 in 87.5 overs (R Bhatia 39; S Badhwar 4/56) and 35/0 vs Haryana 138 in 55 overs (J Sharma 35; iSharma 5/29,R Bhatia 4/32).

Pujara hits ton

KOLKATA: Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara started his preparations for the South Africa Test series in right earnest with a century but failed to take Saurashtra past Bengal’s first innings score of 303 as the hosts gained a crucial 78-run first innings lead in a Ranji Trophy group league encounter at Eden Gardens,here on Friday. Pujara scored a well-made 102 but Saurashtra were all-out for 225 with India discard Ashoke Dinda claiming four for 65. Skipper Laxmi Ratan Shukla showed his all-round abilities chipping in with a couple of wickets for 36 runs.

Coming in to bat at No.3,Pujara showed why he is cut above rest as he smashed 15 fours and a six off a full-toss bowled by leg break bowler Anustup Majumdar. Saurashtra lost half of the side for 119 but till Pujara was there,the visitors harboured hopes of a first innings lead.

Brief Scores: Bengal 303 and 5 for 0 in 1 over (S Lahiri 4 batting,A Das 1 batting; S Maniar 1/5) vs Saurashtra: 225 all out in 79.3 overs (C Pujara 102; A Dinda 4/65)