Ishant, Manan help Delhi take charge against Railways

NEW DELHI: Delhi all-rounder Manan Sharma and skipper Ishant Sharma combined to put the former champions on top against Railways on the second day of their Group A Ranji Trophy game on Sunday.

Southpaw Manan Sharma hit his maiden century (136 - 216 b, 17x4) and raised 117 runs for the seventh wicket with Pulkit Narang (55) to lift Delhi to 447 all out and then took two wickets bowling left-arm spin to reduce Railways to 58 for five at the Karnail stadium.

India pacer Ishant Sharma grabbed three for 12 in his 11 overs and Manan Sharma 2/18 as Delhi, who drew their first game of the season against Assam, pushed for victory.

JADEJA’S DOUBLE

Meanwhile, Ravindra Jadeja smashed 201 as Saurashtra amassed 624/7 against hapless Jammu and Kashmir in a Group B match at Rajkot. The India allrounder hit 23 fours and two sixes after raising a 281-run partnership with Sheldon Jackson (180) for the fourth wicket and 199 for the fifth with Snell Patel (94).

The visitors were reeling at 103/4 in reply at stumps, leftarm spinners Dharmendra Singh Jadeja (3) and Ravindra Jadeja accounting for the wickets.

DELHI TOO HOT

In Delhi, Ishant Sharma looked a cut above the rest on a docile track.

On a track, where Railway pacers could hardly work up pace, Delhi skipper Ishant’s very first delivery saw lefthanded Saurabh Wakaskar (0) failing to get his bat down in time with his stumps rattled. Ishant (11-6-12-3) then got one to straighten that had No. 3 Nitin Bhille squared up and Dhruv Shorey completing a regulation catch in the slip cordon.

The Railways batsmen found Ishant’s pace too hot to handle as they repeatedly got rapped on the pads.

He bowled in two spells and got the ball to reverse in the sec-

ond spell removing the dogged Shivakant Shukla (29 off 99 balls) with one that left him and the edge was taken by Shorey at second slip. Buoyed by his hundred, Manan then got wickets of Arindam Ghosh (5) and Abhishek Yadav (1) with arm balls leaving Railways tottering.