Delhi gained lost ground on the second day of its Ranji Trophy league match against Odisha but was still some distance away from the first-innings lead at the Jamia Millia ground in New Delhi.
After keeping Odisha’s first innings to 440 on Saturday, Delhi finished the day at 187 for two, needing 254 more runs to seize the lead on a placid surface. When Odisha resumed the day at 314 for four, Delhi was looking for another long day. The duo of centurion Subhransu Senapati and the seasoned Biplab Samantaray was well-set to hurt the host but the early fall of Senapati proved a huge relief for Delhi.
However, there was no further respite when Samantaray and Aashirwad Swain put on 111 runs for the sixth wicket. Playing his 82nd Ranji Trophy match, Samantray scored 110 - his seventh century - and moved within 100 runs of completing 4,000 runs in the competition.
It was the wicket of Swain that triggered a lower-order collapse. The last five wickets, including Samantaray, fell within 10 runs.
Samantaray, after hitting 12 fours and a six during his 217-ball innings, surprisingly gave his wicket to Delhi skipper and part-time off-spinner Himmat Singh. Interestingly, Himmat finished with three wickets and his Saturday’s analysis read 9-1-19-3.
When Delhi batted, opener Gagan Vats was involved in two successive 50-plus stands at the top of the order. Vats and Anuj Rawat put on 67 runs for the first wicket to calm the nerves in the dressing room. After Yash Dhull joined Vats, the second-wicket stand produced 77 runs and kept Odisha at bay.
Vats, however, missed a big one when he was run out for 66, that included nine boundaries. Dhull and Ayush Badoni denied Odisha any more success and added 43 runs during their ongoing third-wicket partnership.
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