SCORECARD

Delhi ( 1st innings) 295.

Vidarbha ( 1st Innings, o/ n 206/ 4): F. Fazal c Pant b Akash Sudan 67, R. Sanjay b Akash Sudan 31, W. Jaffer lbw b Saini 78, Ganesh Satish lbw b Saini 12, A. Wankhade c Pant b Khejroliya 28, A. Wakhare c Pant b Saini 17, A. Wadkar ( batting) 133, A. Sarwate c Pant b Rana 79, S. Neral ( batting) 56. Extras: ( b14, lb3, nb5, w5) 27. Total: ( for 7 wkts, in 156 overs) 528. FoW: 1- 96, 2- 107, 3- 133, 4- 206, 5- 237, 6- 246, 7- 415. Bowling: Sudan 27- 3- 102- 2, Saini 32.5- 4- 126- 3 ( 1w), Rana 13.1- 1- 32- 1, Khejroliya 35- 5- 122- 1 ( 5nb), Vikas 38- 6- 102- 0, Shorey 10- 1- 27- 0.

Kunal Chandela in second slip in fourth ball of the day’s first over. Running in hard and hitting the deck harder, a charged up Navdeep Saini had induced an edge from Jaffer but Chandela, who dived to his left ahead of first slip fielder Dhruv

Shorey, spilled the offer. Jaffer may have added only 17 runs after the reprieve, but by the time he got out after an hour and a half stay in the middle, Saini was tiring following an extended first spell that saw him bowl 10.5 overs for two wickets.

The young pacer, who often hit the early 140s, was thus deprived of a chance to run through the Vidarbha lower- order. Eventually, it was Saini who sent back Jaffer, the multiple- time Ranji Trophy winners with Mumbai, when he caught him plumb in front of the wicket with a ball that came in slightly.

While Delhi lacked zest, Vidarbha gradually sought to take control of the game, and the dismissal of Jaffer for 78 did not affect them.

That was primarily due to the duo of Wadkar and Sarwate, who played smarty to wear down the bowlers and fielders and take the match away from

their opponents.

The 23- year- old Wadkar laced his innings with 16 boundaries and a six straight over left- arm spinner Vikas Mishra’s head.

The lack of quality spin options hurt Delhi as the bulk of the load was shared by the pace duo of Saini and Kulwant Khejroliya on an unresponsive pitch.

Akash Sudan was from impressive posed no threat to Vidarbha batsmen.

Delhi’s cause was not helped by the fact that Manan Sharma was off the field for a long time, curtailing further the team’s spin options.

Veteran Gautam Gambhir was conspicuous by his absence after lunch and that did not help either, as the young Pant looked bereft of ideas. The out- of- favour India opener also dropped a catch off Vikas Mishra at first slip, the beneficiary being Sarwate.

It was later learnt that Gambhir has sustained a finger injury while fielding.

Meanwhile, Wadkar got to the three- figure mark with a confident smack over the mid- on fielder, as his family members in the stands rose to applaud. far and the