Lacklustre Delhi draw versus Himachal
NEWDELHI:LACK of ideas and intent in the Delhi camp were exposed as Himachal Pradesh escaped with a draw to deny the hosts full points on the final day of the Elite Group B Ranji Trophy match at the Feroze Shah Kotla. Himachal, who resumed at 44/1 and were 331 behind, ended the day at 266/5 with Nikhil Gangta (66*) and former India allrounder Rishi Dhawan (52*) adding unbeaten 82 runs for the sixth wicket and consuming close to 30 overs before stumps were drawn.
While Delhi had declared at tea on the third day in the hope of getting over 100 overs to dismiss Himachal, the Ishant Sharma-led attack found the going tough. So much so that both Ishant, who took two wickets, and former captain Gautam Gambhir didn’t bother take the field after tea which was surprising as a wicket could have opened floodgates.
Young captain Nitish Rana kept picking Gambhir’s brains throughout the first two sessions and only injudicious strokes from Himachal batsmen got his side wickets. Delhi’s left-arm spinners Vikas Mishra and Varun Sood not only gave one-dimensional look to the attack, they also failed to trouble the batsmen. vs Railways by three wickets. Saurashtra were 65/4 and in danger of losing before Jadeja and Sheldon Jackson (54) added 86.
MP’S TWIN TONS
KOLKATA: Aryaman Birla scored 103 not out and Shubham Sharma made 100 not out as Madhya Pradesh held on to draw their game against Bengal. MP finished with 240/3 in their second innings after they were made to follow on.
Defending champions Vidarbha ran Karnataka close after setting them a target of 158 at Nagpur. Karnataka ended the match at 76/6.