Patiala: Delhi were battling to avoid the follow on at the end of the
second day's play in their North Zone Cooch Behar Trophy match against
Punjab here on Sunday. At stumps, Delhi at 164 for seven, still
require 56 runs to avoid the follow-on, with only three wickets in
hand.
Earlier, Punjab who resumed their first innings score of 323 for 6
were all out for 369 after 92 minutes of play. Overnight not out
batsman Vivek Mahajan(44) was sent back to the pavilion without adding
to his overnight score by R R Jha when he snicked an outswinger to
'keeper Chawla. But SP Singh went on to complete a splendid unbeaten
100. Out of the 46 runs scored on Sunday, Singh accounted for 36
runs. Wickets fell regularly at the other end but Singh carried on to
remain not out. He stayed at the wicket for 199 minutes, faced 148
balls and sent the ball to the ropes 13 times, besides hitting a six.
R.R.Jha was the most successful bowler for Delhi. claiming seven
wickets for 120 runs. Puru Singh got two wickets for 84 runs.
Delhi started their reply on a shaky note as opener Rajat Khanna (1)
was bowled by left arm pace bowler Amit Uniyal with only seven runs on
the board. Chetan Sharma (53) and Gautam Gambhir (27) then added 48
runs for the second wicket, when the latter was caught by 'keeper
Sondhi off the bowling of off spinner Sanjay Dhull. Rajan Gupta joined
Chetan Sharma but was run out for five.
Siddarth Verma (26) in the company of Chetan Sharma raised some hopes
for his team, adding 50 runs for the fourth wicket. The partnership
was broken by part time bowler Vivek Mahajan who had Chetan Sharma
caught by Amit Uniyal. Chetan scored 53 runs off 108 balls during his
stay of 167 minutes at the crease. He hit nine boundaries.
After Chetan's departure, no other batsmen stayed for long. They threw
away their wickets at regular intervals. Pradeep Chawla (27*) and Puru
Singh (9*) were at the crease at close of play.
Sanjay Dhull and Vivek Mahajan captured two wickets each giving away
28 and 11 runs respectively.