Delhi concede first innings lead to Gujarat

VALSAD: Gujarat took the vital first innings lead against Delhi in their Group A Super League Ranji match here on Tuesday, but the visitors' middle and lower order batsmen made them fight every inch of the way.
The hosts held back Delhi at 314, in reply to their first innings total of 350 and at draw of stumps on the third day of the four-day match, had consolidated their position by slamming 76 without loss in their second knock.
Playing his first Ranji season, Priyank Panchal, the skipper of Gujarat's national champion under-19 team, was at the crease on 46 with five fours, giving company to his senior partner Nilesh Modi who was going strong on 26.
Delhi threw in five bowlers in the 31 overs they got before the day's play ended, but could not get past the defences of Gujarat's openers who were buoyant after their team took the lead on yet another exciting day of cricket.
The race for the first innings' honours was anyone's when Yogesh Nagar and Sumit Narwal carried Delhi, overnight 199 for six, to 270 without being separated. The pair put their heads down and stoutly defended everything the Gujarat medium-pacers Siddharth Trivedi and Ashraf Makda flung at them.
The first hour produced only 18 runs off 13.4 overs and though the run rate went up marginally as Narwal smashed spinner Timil Patel past cover, the batsmen stuck to their no-risk strategy.
As Nagar and Narwal dug themselves in, Trivedi and Makda committed the cardinal mistake of trying too hard on a helpful wicket, instead of keeping the basics of good line and length. When Trivedi did bowl on the stumps, he trapped Narwal leg before, and that proved to be the most crucial dismissal of the innings.
Narwal had put on 108 runs with Nagar for the seventh wicket. It was a partnership that not only kept the match alive but also gave Gujarat a scare. After Narwal exited, the rest of the Delhi innings folded up, Ranji debutant Nagar making it a match to remember for himself with the innings' top score of 79.