Delhi's opener Aakash Chopra (85 not out) together with Rajat Bhatia (81 not out) held the fort quite well while stitching a crucial unbeaten partnership of 160 runs for the fifth wicket to rescue Delhi team after Uttar Pradesh's seamer Praveen Kumar ripped apart Delhi's top order with some fine bowling early on the second day of the five-day Ranji Trophy final played at the Wankhede Stadium here on Thursday.
The six-time champions Delhi fought back as the duo of Chopra-Bhatia stuck to their task with some thoughtful approach in the last two sessions to bail Delhi out of big trouble.
Delhi team management had a huge sigh of relief as after tottering at 36 for 4 they ended the day at 196 for 4 with still trailing by 146 runs in the first innings. Earlier, Uttar Pradesh could only add 50 more runs to their overnight total and takes their first innings total to 342 before their first innings came to an end.
Gritty Ravikant Shukla, who was unbeaten on 80 overnight, once again missed out a likely century as he fell short of four runs while becoming medium-pacer Bhatia's victim at 96.
Pradeep Sangwan (4 for 80) and Sumit Narwal (4 for 81) shared eight wickets together and were the most successful bowlers for Delhi .
Delhi started the innings on a shaky note as they lost their first wicket in the very third ball and with only a run on the board, as Gautam Gambhir edged Praveen Kumar's delivery to Suresh Raina at third slip. Gambhir went for duck.
Shikhar Dhawan (14) and Mithun Manhas (0) saw the back of the field soon, as Delhi was reeling at 15 for3, after both accounted for by Kumar who finished his day's opening spell 8-4-11-3. Aditya Jain (8) became the victim of Sudeep Tyagi just after lunch to have Delhi tottering at 36/4.
Praveen was rightly hitting the deck and got some great movement off the seam, picking up the wickets of Dhawan and Manhas in the deliveries that jagged back in. Gambhir had to pay the price for attempting a hefty drive on the rising ball early on as Suresh Raina made no mistake in snatching the Delhi southpaw's flier.
Dhawan dragged one faster one resulting the inside edge to the wicket while Manhas trapped in front as he clearly missed the line.
The Delhi rescuers Chopra and Bhatia played an entirely distinctive innings to each other as the former was more resolute while the latter dished out an aggressive style which is quite evident to his 81 coming off just 135 balls with 10 hits to the fence. In fact, he reached his half-century before his teammate Chopra in 74 balls despite coming in to bat much down the order.
On the other hand, Chopra's innings was more determined one as he took 19 balls to get off the mark and took 205 balls to reach 85. But irrespective of the flair and flamboyance it was the demand of the game at that moment as Chopra was falling short of partners from the other end.
It was his perseverance that helped Delhi to stage a fight back. The Chopra-Bhatia unite frustrated the UP bowlers entire day and ensured no further damage was done taking Delhi's score to 117/4 at tea and then aided their team end the day on a high note.
SCORECARD
Uttar Pradesh (1st innings, overnight 292/7)
R Srivastava lbw b Narwal 6
T Srivastava c Dhawan b Sangwan 105
S Raina lbw b Sangwan 16
Kaif c Chopra b Nanda 16
R Shukla c Manhas b Bhatia 96
Piyush Chawla c Jain b Narwal 20
Amir Khan c Chopra b Sangwan 15
P Kumar c Manhas b Narwal 8
B Kumar c Jain b Narwal 10
P Gupta c Bhatia b Sangwan 27
S Tyagi not out 0
Extras: (b 1, lb 13, w 4, nb 5) 23
Total: 342 all out in 110.1 overs
Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-60, 3-99, 4-200, 5-231, 6-274, 7-285, 8-297, 9-341, 10-342
Bowling: P Sangwan 27.1-7-80-4, A Bhandari 21-3-79-0, S Narwal 26-5-81-4, R Bhatia 19-3-41-1, C Nanda 16-2-39-1, M Manhas 1-0-8-0
Delhi (1st innings)
A Chopra batting 85
G Gambhir c Raina b P Kumar 0
S Dhawan b P Kumar 14
M Manhas lbw b P Kumar 0
A Jain c Raina b Tyagi 8
R Bhatia batting 81
Extras: (lb 2, w 2, nb 4) 8
Total: 196 for 4 wickets in 67 overs
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-15, 3-15, 4-36Bowling: P Kumar 21-6-44-3, S Tyagi 15-4-44-1, B Kumar 12-4-30-0, P Chawla 10-2-47-0, P Gupta 7-2-22-0, R Shukla 2-0-6-0
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