Himachal’s lower order keeps Delhi at bay

NEW DELHI: Left-arm spinners Vikas Mishra and Varun Sood combined to put Delhi in a strong position as Himachal Pradesh struggled to save their Group B game at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Tuesday.

Himachal Pradesh were 216/8 in reply to Delhi’s first innings total of 317.

Riding on tight bowling from Mishra (4/53) and Sood (2/65) and poor, injudicious batting from the Himachal batsmen, Delhi had at one point in time looked set for a lead of 200-plus runs when they reduced the visitors to 58 for six. However, former India allrounder Rishi Dhawan (64 off 114 balls) and Ekant Sen (46 off 71 balls) stitched together a partnership of 95 runs for the 7th wicket to resist.

Dhawan and Sen hit six boundaries each with the former also hitting a six.

Left-arm pacer Kulwant Khejroliya broke the partnership, breaching the defences of Sen. Dhawan was dismissed within the next 10 overs before Delhi boy Mayank Dagar and Pankaj Jaiswal took Himachal to stumps with an unbeaten 35-run ninth wicket partnership.

India pacer Ishant Sharma, playing competitive cricket for the first time after the Oval Test against England, gave Delhi the breakthrough early dismissing opener Priyanshu Khanduri leg before with the total on 12. Captain Prashant Chopra and Ankush Bains then took the team

to 49 for two before the batters committed hara-kiri.

He could have had another one later in the day, when an appeal of leg-before the wicket was turned down. Earlier, Delhi were dismissed for 317 after resuming at 305 for eight.

REDDY, TIWARI HIT DOUBLE CENTURIES

Double centuries by Hyderabad and Bengal skippers — Akshath Reddy and Manoj Tiwary — against Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh, respectively lit up the second day elsewhere.

Reddy blasted an unbeaten 248, supported by Bavanaka Sandeep’s 130 to propel Hyderabad to a mammoth 523/7 against hosts