On a benign Chinnaswamy pitch, Karnataka, to put it mildly, struggled to make any sort of impact on the marauding Delhi batsmen. As a result, at close on the opening day of this Ranji Super League ‘Group ‘A’ clash, Delhi, after deciding to bat first, had piled on 337 for the loss of two wickets in 92 overs.

Opener Shikhar Dhawan and number three Virat Kohli negated the early loss of their prolific scorer Aakash Chopra with a stunning display of batting that generated great awe among the gathered few here on Monday.

While Dhawan was out after a beautifully-crafted 148 (307m, 211b, 24x4), Kohli was still going strong at 154 (334m, 292b, 21x4, 1x6). Skipper Mithun Manhas, who played some rasping cover drives and cuts off medium pacer S Dhananjaya, was giving him company at 26 (37b, 6x4). 

Just as Karnataka would feel aggreived at some of the close shouts not going their way, Chopra too had every reason to be disappointed with the leg-before decision against him off paceman R Vinay Kumar, the ball seemingly in ascending path after hitting the right-hander on his thigh.

This was the lone success for the hosts’ bowlers to show off for most part of the day before left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi managed to elicit a nick from Dhawan to Robin Uthappa at slip.  

Bright talent

Not too long ago Dhawan was among the brightest of the emerging Indian talent. The left-hander was spoken in the same breath as that of Uthappas’ or Suresh Rainas’. While Raina and Uthappa went on to don India colours with creditable success, Dhawan, for some strange reason, was left behind. With the competition peaking for the opener’s slot even in the Delhi team, a string of low scores in the last season didn’t serve the youngster’s purpose. With the onset of new season, however, Dhawan seemed to have found his bearings right. The stylish batsman punished the helpless Karnataka bowlers on his way to a second century of the season.

Standing tall at the crease, the southpaw pulled with elan, rocked back to cut in style whenever the spinners erred in length and stepped forward to execute some delictable drives whenever he was offered the width.

Dhawan was particularly severe on Dhananjaya in whose over he cracked four fours. Manhas later was to reapeat the feat against the same bowler towards the end of day’s play.  

Good strike rate

That Dhawan collected his runs at a strike rate of just over 70 also hurt Karnataka badly. His partner at the other end, Kohli, was slow to begin with but once the right-hander got his eye in, he matched Dhawan stroke for stroke sending Karnataka on a leather hunt.

Kohli, who reached his hundred with a six off C Raghu, had stood between Karnataka and a possible victory with a doughty knock under huge pressure and a great personal tragedy in Delhi last year. Despite his father’s death on the morning of the third day’s play, the youngster went out to bat and rescued Delhi with a determined 90 to halt Karnataka’s determined march. On Monday though it was a situation where he didn’t a second invitation to join the party.  

The left-right combination tormented Karnataka for over five and a half hours, during which time they stacked up 266 runs for the second wicket in 439 balls.

The bowlers might have breathed a sigh of relief when the duo was seperated, but the ordeal for them seems to be far from over.