Ranji Trophy: Delhi looks to keep it going

Delhi will look to keep climbing the ladder in group-A, as it takes on lowly placed Uttar Pradesh in a league match of the Ranji Trophy at the Palam ground from Wednesday.

On what is expected to be a lively pitch, Ishant Sharma and company could tackle the challenges from Uttar Pradesh with lot more conviction than what they have managed so far in the two matches.

Delhi will look to keep climbing the ladder in group-A, as it takes on lowly placed Uttar Pradesh in a league match of the Ranji Trophy at the Palam ground from Wednesday.

After letting Assam off the hook, and being content with the first innings lead, Delhi has done well to reach the third spot among seven teams in the group with a victory over Railways.

On what is expected to be a lively pitch, Ishant Sharma and company could tackle the challenges from Uttar Pradesh with a lot more conviction than what they have managed so far in the two matches.

READ: Ranji Trophy: Full-strength Mumbai set to go flat out against Odisha

“It is a good pitch. We will take things as they come. Not giving much thought to what is not in our control. We will give our best and look to win the game,’’ said the Delhi captain Ishant on the eve of the match.

READ: Ranji Trophy: Bengal set to unleash Shami-Dinda on Himachal

On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh, with one point from three matches, can only get better from what it has played thus far. Eminently forgettable, despite playing at home, especially the collapse against Railways when the team chased 93 for victory and lost by 21 runs.

Of course, the team lost a close match to Maharashtra which enlivened the proceedings with a timely declaration of its second innings.

READ: Ranji Trophy: Hyderabad seeks season's first win against Railways

With a match having been abandoned against Hyderabad, fetching it the solitary point, Uttar Pradesh will need to play good cricket against a quality team to revive its fortunes, under the able leadership of Suresh Raina.

The teams

Delhi: Ishant Sharma (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Unmukt Chand, Rishabh Pant, Milind Kumar, Nitish Rana, Manan Sharma, Dhruv Shorey, Himmat Singh, Navdeep Saini,, Vikas Tokas, Pulkit Narang, Kulwant Khejruliya, Kunal Chandela, Vikas Mishra.

Uttar Pradesh: Suresh Raina (captain), Ankit Rajpoot, Imtiyaz Ahmed, Umang Sharma, Shivam Chaudhary, Upendra Yadav, Akashdeep Nath, Saurabh Kumar, Deependra Pandey, Rinku Singh, Dhruv Pratap Singh, Almas Shaukat, Zeeshan Ansari, Md. Saif, Israr Azim Khan.

Umpires: Umesh Dubey, Rohan Pandit.

Referee: Narayan Kutty.