Delhi skittle Mumbai out for 156

Cuttack: It’s not often that you see a traditional Ranji Trophy powerhouse like Mumbai surrendering so meekly. But that was the case on Day One of their quarterfinal match here against Delhi at the DRIEMS ground on Monday as Mumbai folded for just 156 runs, in 81 overs, in their first innings.
In reply, Delhi were 20/1 from 6.5 overs when stumps were drawn one ball before the scheduled end.Unmukt Chand was foxed by a brilliant Balwinder Singh Sandhu delivery which deviated slightly to take the outside edge to Aditya Tare’s gloves.
In overcast conditions and on a track tinged with green, Delhi captain Gautam Gambhir made the right choice by opting to bowl first. His pacers did an excellent job by bowling in the right areas. The rest was done by the Mumbai batsmen as most of them were victims of poor shot selection and lack of application. The wicket was a bit two-paced in the first session due to the strong winds blowing from Pavilion End, but that was no excuse for Mumbai.
Except the three-match old captain and opener Aditya Tare (39; 121 balls, 7x4) and Nikhil Patil (54*; 116 balls, 1x4, 2x6), none of the Mumbai batsmen showed any desire to spend time in the middle. Wickets tumbled at regular intervals. Tare got out to an excellent delivery from pacer Sumit Narwal which bounced higher than expected and swung a little to take the outside edge before Rahul Yadav took an easy catch.
Patil, playing only his third Ranji match of the season and the fourth of his career, was the only Mumbai batsman who was impressive in his shot selection. He didn’t mince words in the post-match interaction either, saying, “Our top-order needed better application. In that case the score could have been 250 or 300 at the end of the day. It wasn’t easy to bat on this wicket but Delhi bowled in the right channels to outplay us.”
Patil hit left-arm spinner Manan Sharma for the only two sixes in Mumbai innings. It won’t be an overstatement to say Mumbai were saved the ignominy of failing to cross the 150-run mark because of him. He put on 34 runs with Balwinder Singh Sandhu for the last wicket.
Other opener Akhil Herwadkar and Shreyas Iyer returned jabbing outside off at Sumit Narwal and Parvinder Awana respectively. Both batsmen were caught at first slip. Second down Abhishek Nayar tried to resist any further damage by collaborating with his skipper but could not stitch together more than 35 runs, which happens to be the highest partnership for Mumbai, before he was out LBW playing Rajat Bhatia across the line.
Surya Kumar Yadav, right now Mumbai’s dependable man in the batting department, too, was also guilty of playing across the line, this time to left-arm pacer Pradeep Sangwan.
Delhi made the right decision to include Sangwan in place of left-arm spinner Varun Sood, who is Delhi’s highest wicket-taker this season. Milind Kumar made way for Virender Sehwag, who received loud cheers from the hundred-odd students present at the ground. Mumbai were also to be blamed for maintaining a poor run rate — less than two runs per over — throughout the day. Scoring only 66 runs from 33 overs in the first session with only 12 boundaries and adding just five to the tally in the second session is testimony to the pressure Delhi put on them. It’s definitely an awful stat for a side like Mumbai.
SCOREBOARD
Mumbai (First innings): A Tare c Rahul b Narwal 39, A Herwadkar c Chand b Narwal 1, S Iyer c Manhas b Awana 13, A Nayar lbw Bhatia 10, S K Yadav lbw Sangwan 10, S Lad lbw Manan 6, N Patil not out 54, W Mota c Sangwan b Manan 5, S Thakur run out Narwal 1, Harmeet c Rahul b Sangwan 11, B S Sandhu c Rahul b Narwal 3. Extras (w 1, lb 2): 3. Total (In 81 overs): 156. Fall of wkts: 1-5, 2-22, 3-57, 4-75, 5-79, 6-86, 7-98, 8-102, 9-122. Bowling: Narwal 19-6-37-3, Awana 11-2-27-1, Sangwan 15-6-26-2, Bhatia 12-9-3-1, Manan 19-2-39-2, Shivam 5-0-22-0.
Delhi (First innings): U Chand c Tare b Sandhu 15, G Gambhir batting 5. Total (for 1 wkt in 6.5 overs): 20. Fall of wkt: 1-20. Bowling: Shardul 3-1-9-0, Sandhu 2.5-1-5-1, Mota 1-0-6-0