Delhi's woes with the willow continued as the team struggled to 214 for six after the likes of Yash Dhull and Himmat Singh failed to convert their starts into substantial knocks in their Ranji Trophy match against Assam New Delhi on Sunday. (More Cricket News)
Resuming at their overnight score of 264 for six, Assam's first innings innings ended at 330 with wicketkeeper Sumit Ghadigaonkar making 162 off 237 balls. Ghadigaonkar was overnight 120, having seen his colleagues blown away by Harshit Rana's excellent bowling.
Delhi were 214 for six at stumps on day two, trailing Assam by 116 runs.
Having received his maiden Test call-up, Rana ended with fine figures of 5/80 in 19.3 overs, wrapping up Assam's innings with the wicket of Mrinmoy Dutta.
When their turn to bat came, Delhi lost Gagan Vats for a duck but Sanat Sangwan (47 off 88 balls) and Dhull (47 off 44 balls) added 66 runs for the second wicket to stead the innings.
Dhull's wicket signalled the arrival of skipper Himmat, who added 81 runs for the third wicket with Sangwan before the latter was out leg before.
Even as Sangwan walked back to the pavilion, Himmat looked determined to play a long innings but nine runs later, Assam's veteran off-spinner Swarupam Purkayastha dashed his hopes by bowling out the batter for an 88-ball 55.
Purkayastha was Assam's best bowler on the day with figures of 3/46 in 17 overs, while left-arm spinner Rahul Singh picked up 2/32 in the Group D match.
When Rahul had wicketkeeper Pranav Rajuvanshi trapped in front of the wicket, Delhi were in all sorts of trouble at 182 for six. But Sumit Mathur (19 batting) and Rana (15 batting) ensured there was no further casualty for the home team until the close of play on the second day.
Brief scores:
At Delhi: Assam 330 (Sibsankar Roy 59, Sumit Ghadigaonkar 162; Harshit Rana 5/80) lead Delhi 214-6 (Himmat Singh 55; Swarupam Purkayastha 3/46) by 116 runs.
At Jamshedpur: Jharkhand 202 (Anukul Roy 61; Jagjit Singh 3/32, Vishu Kashyap 3/64) lead Chandigarh 34-0 (Shivam Bhambri 23 batting) by 168 runs.
At Coimbatore: Chhattisgarh 500 (Aayush Pandey 124, Anuj Tiwary 84, Sanjeet Desai 82, Eknath Kerkar 52, Ajay Mandal 64; Ajith Ram 4/132) lead Tamil Nadu 23-1 (Ajith Ram 10 batting; Jivesh Butte 1/5) by 477 runs.
At Rajkot: Railways 234 & 122-7 (Shivam Chaudhary 35; Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 3/40, Yuvrajsinh Dodiya 3/50) lead Saurashtra 196 (Prerak Mankad 52; Karn Sharma 4/38) by 160 runs.
