Sehwag's ton in vain as Delhi lose

As time ticked away, defeat for the fancied Delhi became imminent. Uttar Pradesh bowlers scythed through Delhi middle-order and would have clinched their six-wicket victory much earlier had it not been for one  man—Virender Sehwag.

Sehwag (107, 165 balls 19x4), captain of a star-studded side, stroked a gritty hundred waging a lone battle, but couldn’t save his team from an embarrassing defeat in the opening Ranji Trophy clash of the season on Monday.

Chasing 155 in 50 overs, Uttar Pradesh, who had never won at the Jawaharlal Nehru Cricket Stadium here, made heavy weather of the task before accomplishing it during the mandatory overs in fading light. The win fetched UP six points. After bowling out Delhi for 322 shortly after lunch, the hosts had nearly two sessions to seal the victory. The first innings centurion Mukul Dagar and Tanmay Srivastava gave their side a solid start, adding 54 before Suresh Raina (37) and Parvinder Singh took over.   

score board

DELHI (I Innings): 235 all out.

UTTAR PRADESH (I Innings): 403 all out.

DELHI (II innings, O/n 197/4): Gautam Gambhir c Khan b Murtaza 47, Unmukt Chand lbw Bhuvneshwar 0, Virat Kohli c Khan b Bhuvneshwar 43, Mithun Manhas c Alam b Bhuvneshwar 65, Punit Bisht c Khan b Ahmed 14,  Virender Sehwag c Praveen b Ahmed  107, Sumit Narwal (run out) 0, Pradeep Sangwan c Khan b Ahmed 21,  Ishant Sharma c Khan b Ahmed 5, Ashish Nehra b Bhuvneshwar 8, Vikas Mishra (not out) 0. Extras: (B-5, LB-6, W-1)  12. Total: (all out, 87.5 overs) 322.

Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Chand), 2-176 (Gambhir), 3-109 (Kohli), 4-146 (Bisht), 5-214 (Manhas), 6-218 (Narwal), 7-303 (Sangwan), 8-313 (Ishant),  9-314 (Sehwag).
Bowling: Praveen Kumar 18-2-54-0 (w-1), Bhuvneshwar Kumar 23.5-6-94-4, Imtiaz Ahmed  29-7-112-4, Ali Murtaza 15-3-42-1, Suresh Raina 2-1-9-0.

UTTAR PRADESH (II Innings): Tanmay Srivastava (run out) 26, Mukul Dagar c Sangwan b Manhas 37, Suresh Raina c Sangwan b Ishant 37, Parvinder Singh c Sangwan b Mishra 19,  Arish Alam (not out) 15, Ali Murtaza (not out ) 14. Extras: (B-5, LB-3, W-2) 10. Total (for 4 wkts, 39.2 overs) 158.

Fall of wickets: 1-54 (Dagar), 2-89 (Srivastava), 3-117 ( Raina), 4-132 (Singh).
Bowling: Ishant Sharma 10-0-31-1 (w-2), Ashish Nehra 9-2-36-0, Sumit Narwal 9-0-37-0, Pradeep Sangwan 3-0-10-0, Mithun Manhas 6-0-23-1, Vikas Mishra 2.2-0-13-1.