Dinda rocks Delhi batting

Dhawan, Bhatia in rescue act for visiting team

At stumps, Bhatia was batting on 59 along with Manoj Chauhan (6), with Dinda taking his wicket tally for the season to 25 with figures of four for 55.

Left-arm spinner Iresh Saxena (2/37) had a fine second spell to help Bengal stage a comeback in the last session, breaking an 81-run sixth-wicket partnership between Bhatia and Puneet Bisht (40), the leading Delhi run-getter this season.

Delhi, who need an outright victory to have a chance of qualifying for the quarterfinals, were without their pace spearhead Ashish Nehra as the former India seamer decided to rest following back-to-back four-day matches.

The match is equally crucial for Bengal, who also need a victory to come out of the relegation zone.

Put in to bat, Delhi had a jittery start when Dinda’s fiery first spell (8-4-11-2) in which he took two wickets in the 11th over reduced the visitors to 30 for two. Debutant medium-pacer Veer Pratap Singh (1/49), drafted in place of veteran Ranadeb Bose, bowled with a lot of promise as he scalped skipper Mithun Manhas (18) with Delhi struggling for 60 for three.

But India discard Dhawan (76 from 143 balls,10x4) remained vigilant as he and Yogesh Nagar (30) put on a crucial 69 for the fourth wicket. Before the duo could kick on, Dinda gave another breakthrough in the eighth over after lunch when a fine low catch by Subhomoy Das at gully cut short Nagar’s innings.

Brief scores:
Group A: In Delhi: Railways: 204/5 in 90 overs (Shivakant Shukla 96, Sanjay Bangar 46, Mahesh Rawat 38 n.o.; Biplab Samantray 2-32) vs Orissa.
In Jaipur: Rajasthan: 369/7 in 89 overs (Vineet Saxena 127, Hrishikesh Kanitkar 27, Puneet Yadav 108, Dishant Yagnik 34; Jaidev Unadkat 2-60, Siddharth Trivedi 4-69) vs Saurashtra.
In Lucknow: Mumbai: 203/3 in 62.1 overs (Kaustubh Pawar 76, Sushant Marathe 102; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2-64) vs Uttar Pradesh.
Group B: In Kolkata: Delhi: 252/8 in 80.3 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 76, Yogesh Nagar 30, Rajat Bhatia 59 n.o., Puneet Bisht 40; Ashoke Dinda 4-55, Iresh Saxena 2-37) vs Bengal.
In Ahmedabad: Tamil Nadu: 283/2 in 90 overs (Abhinav Mukund 150 n.o., S Badrinath 102, Dinesh Kaarthick 25 n.o.; Ishwar Chaudhary 2-61) vs Gujarat.
In Rohtak: Madhya Pradesh: 278/3 in 90 overs (Zafar Ali 38, Naman Ojha 160, Devendra Bundela 25 n.o., Udit Birla 29 n.o.; Harshal Patel 2-41) vs Haryana.