Medium-pacers Parvinder Awana and Navdeep Saini combined well to bag seven wickets between themselves and helped Delhi bundle out Rajasthan for 141 in their Group B Ranji Trophy cricket match, here today.
Put in to field at the Feroz Shah Kotla in the four-day encounter, the Delhi bowlers utilised the murky conditions to their advantage as Awana (4-15) and Saini (3-31) led the attack with aplomb and only saw some resistance from Rajasthan middle-order batsman Rajesh Bishnoi (57).
The decision to bat first by the visitors did come as a bit of surprise, but skipper and pace spearhead Pankaj Singh's absence seemed to be the reason behind the move as Ashok Menaria-led the side.
With the match starting an hour late, the Rajasthan openers, Saraf (0 in 37 balls) and Vineet Saxena (17 off 53 balls) started over-cautiously but the strategy backfired after the score read 31 for two at lunch.
The fall of wickets did not improve after the lunch session and Rajasthan took tea struggling at 95 for six. Bishnoi and and Aristh Singhvi (28) then stitched together a seventh-wicket 46-run stand to improve things for the visitors.
But just when the sun seemed to be smiling on the batting side at 141 for six, Awana and Saini rattled the Rajasthan tail to pick the final four wickets without a run being scored. The visitors lost four wickets in just 11 balls.
Pace spearhead Sumit Narwal, medium-pacer Rajat Bhatia, left-arm spinner Varun Sood and off-spinner Shivam Sharma also played their parts by picking up a wicket each.
Shivam's delivery to send back wicketkeeper Dishant Yagnik (4) was the delivery of the day when his big-turning off-spinner bamboozled the left-handed batsman to send him back to the pavilion.
But Menaria and company had something to cheer about after left-arm pacer Aniket Chowdhary cleaned up opposition skipper Gautam Gambhir for a second-ball duck.
The hosts were 10 for one at stumps with Varun Sood and Unmukt Chand battling on.
Brief Scores:
Rajasthan: 141 in 64.1 overs (Rajesh Bishnoi 57, Aristh Singhvi 28; Parvinder Awana 4-15, Navdeep Saini 3-31)
Delhi: 10/1 in 4 overs (Varun Sood 4 not out, Unmukt Chand 4 not out; Aniket Chowdhary 1-4).
