The start to the second day's play of the Ranji Trophy Group B match
between Delhi and Rajasthan at Feroz Shah Kotla wasn't promising. Thick
fog greeted Delhi on the Monday morning and it wiped out the entire
first session's play. However, as the day progressed, the sun came out
of hiding and shone brightly as Delhi batsmen respected the conditions
to reach 201/3 in 56 overs, taking a lead of 
60 runs against Rajasthan
on Monday before the stumps were drawn early due to bad light.
The overnight pair of Unmukt Chand and Varun Sood resumed the innings after the umpires deemed the conditions fit enough to play after lunch. Soon, Unmukt, batting on five, edged Deepak Chahar between the slips as the ball raced away to the boundary fence in the first over of the day. It was a missed chance that the visitors came to rue by the end of the day. Before that, left-arm medium-pacer Aniket Choudhary struck early for Rajasthan having nightwatchman Sood caught at second slip by Vineet Saxena for eight. In walked Virender Sehwag, who survived few nervy moments early on but the Rajasthan pacers failed to make any significant impact.
Unmukt seemed to be a little circumspect to start with but eventually started middling his shots as time progressed. Often in the past, he has been guilty of throwing away his wicket but looked determined to make it count against Rajasthan. After settling in, he began playing his shots with confidence, returning unbeaten on 87 that were encrusted with 12 boundaries. On the other hand, Sehwag took 10 deliveries to get off the mark. His first boundary was thanks to an edge that went wide of the third slip. Rajasthan bowlers kept bowling short to Sehwag as he slowly and steadily got into the groove, cutting them with much ease.
Delhi scored 131 runs in the session at the loss of one wicket in 34 overs. Both the batsmen reached their fifties - Chand with a couple to third man while Sehwag took the aerial route to reach the milestone, hitting Shailender Gehlot into the stands over long-off for a big six. In fact, the two best shots of the day came from his blade. The first was a cut through gully for four that drew loud cheers from the dressing room and the second was the six over long-off that took him to his fifty.
In not so batting friendly conditions, Delhi needed their batsmen to occupy the crease initially and that's what they did, something which was acknowledged by their coach Vijay Dahiya. "They (Unmukt and Sehwag) batted really well today. It is difficult to bat under changing weather conditions. I am happy with what we did today," he said after the end of the day's play.
On the other hand, Rajasthan bowlers were also guilty of bowling too short to Chand and Sehwag. The strategy did not work as the duo kept ducking under them comfortably or pulling or cutting them for easy runs. However, it was one such delivery in the final session that undid Sehwag as Gehlot lured him into a pull that went straight into the hands of short-midwicket. He departed after scoring 64 (90b, 4x8, 6x1) in a 128-run association with Unmukt for the third wicket.
The next man in was experienced Mithun Manhas. Making his return after an injury layoff, Manhas unleashed some impressive strokes, extending Rajasthan's problems. His six boundaries in the score of 34 not out were picture perfect, indicating he was in good nick.
Ashok Menaria, the Rajasthan skipper, will have his task cut-out on day three as another good session for Delhi and things would become really tight for his side, in context of this match.
Brief scores: Rajasthan 141 (Bishnoi 57; Awana 4/15); Delhi 201/3 (Chand 87*, Sehwag 64; Choudhary 2/32)
60 runs against Rajasthan
on Monday before the stumps were drawn early due to bad light.The overnight pair of Unmukt Chand and Varun Sood resumed the innings after the umpires deemed the conditions fit enough to play after lunch. Soon, Unmukt, batting on five, edged Deepak Chahar between the slips as the ball raced away to the boundary fence in the first over of the day. It was a missed chance that the visitors came to rue by the end of the day. Before that, left-arm medium-pacer Aniket Choudhary struck early for Rajasthan having nightwatchman Sood caught at second slip by Vineet Saxena for eight. In walked Virender Sehwag, who survived few nervy moments early on but the Rajasthan pacers failed to make any significant impact.
Unmukt seemed to be a little circumspect to start with but eventually started middling his shots as time progressed. Often in the past, he has been guilty of throwing away his wicket but looked determined to make it count against Rajasthan. After settling in, he began playing his shots with confidence, returning unbeaten on 87 that were encrusted with 12 boundaries. On the other hand, Sehwag took 10 deliveries to get off the mark. His first boundary was thanks to an edge that went wide of the third slip. Rajasthan bowlers kept bowling short to Sehwag as he slowly and steadily got into the groove, cutting them with much ease.
Delhi scored 131 runs in the session at the loss of one wicket in 34 overs. Both the batsmen reached their fifties - Chand with a couple to third man while Sehwag took the aerial route to reach the milestone, hitting Shailender Gehlot into the stands over long-off for a big six. In fact, the two best shots of the day came from his blade. The first was a cut through gully for four that drew loud cheers from the dressing room and the second was the six over long-off that took him to his fifty.
In not so batting friendly conditions, Delhi needed their batsmen to occupy the crease initially and that's what they did, something which was acknowledged by their coach Vijay Dahiya. "They (Unmukt and Sehwag) batted really well today. It is difficult to bat under changing weather conditions. I am happy with what we did today," he said after the end of the day's play.
On the other hand, Rajasthan bowlers were also guilty of bowling too short to Chand and Sehwag. The strategy did not work as the duo kept ducking under them comfortably or pulling or cutting them for easy runs. However, it was one such delivery in the final session that undid Sehwag as Gehlot lured him into a pull that went straight into the hands of short-midwicket. He departed after scoring 64 (90b, 4x8, 6x1) in a 128-run association with Unmukt for the third wicket.
The next man in was experienced Mithun Manhas. Making his return after an injury layoff, Manhas unleashed some impressive strokes, extending Rajasthan's problems. His six boundaries in the score of 34 not out were picture perfect, indicating he was in good nick.
Ashok Menaria, the Rajasthan skipper, will have his task cut-out on day three as another good session for Delhi and things would become really tight for his side, in context of this match.
Brief scores: Rajasthan 141 (Bishnoi 57; Awana 4/15); Delhi 201/3 (Chand 87*, Sehwag 64; Choudhary 2/32)
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