Ranji Trophy: Delhi secures four-wicket win over UP

Delhi eased to the target of 252 with four wickets in hand and stay on course for qualification to the knockout phase.

Dhruv Shorey scored briskly to keep Delhi ahead.

Delhi overcame Uttar Pradesh for a four-wicket victory to stay on course for qualification to the knock-out phase, in the Ranji Trophy cricket league at the Palam ground on Saturday. Full Scorecard

After swiftly executing the Uttar Pradesh innings in the morning in about 20 minutes, with medium pacer Navdeep Saini bagging all the last three wickets for a four-wicket haul, Delhi eased to the target of 252, for an exciting finish in twilight, with Navdeep Saini himself bringing the curtains down with a cameo.

MATCH REPORT: Day 1 , Day 2 , Day 3

Medium pacer Ankit Rajpoot had infused life into the match by dismissing opener Gautam Gambhir in the second over, when the former India Test player slashed outside the off-stump.

However, Unmukt Chand and Dhruv Shorey kept Delhi ahead with their brisk scoring, and the good work was continued by Nitish Rana, Milind Kumar and Rishabh Pant, who all contributed usefully.

BLOG: Ranji Trophy - Round IV, Day 4 Ankit did strike thrice for Uttar Pradesh, but Delhi ensured it earned six points from the match for an outright victory, after having conceded a 22-run first innings lead. It thus took its tally to 16 points from four matches. Delhi had spoilt its chances by letting Assam off the hook in the first match. For Uttar Pradesh, languishing at the bottom with a solitary point from four matches, it was some consolation as referee Narayanan Kutty adjudged Akshdeep Nath as the "Man of the Match’’ . The energetic young man had hit a fluent century that helped the team make a fight of it, after Delhi skipper Ishant Sharma had wrecked the top order in the second innings with a three-wicket bag. Delhi will next play Maharashtra from November 17. The DDCA authorities, who made an inspection of the venue after the freak incident of a car being driven on to the pitch on Friday evening, said they would take a call on the venue for the next match soon.