Bhatia ton takes Delhi to big total

Experienced campaigner Rajat Bhatia hit an unbeaten 158 and combined with lower-order batsmen to propel Delhi to a huge 442 all out against Odisha, who were trailing by 321 runs at the end of second day in their Ranji Trophy Group A match, here on Saturday.

Bhatia, who resumed at 71, not only recorded his 13th first class century but ensured that Delhi reached a commanding position by building partnerships with lower-order batsmen.

After early departure of his overnight partner Varun Sood (16), Bhatia joined hands with Sumit Narwal (40), raising a 65-run stand for the eighth wicket, and then rattled the opposition with his 92-run partnership with Ashish Nehra (40) for the ninth wicket.

Bhatia tormented the Odisha bowlers with 18 fours and two sixes in his 258-ball knock.
In reply, the hosts were 121 for three.

Other Ranji scores

GROUP A: At Mumbai: Jharkhand (O/n: 262/8): 351 all out in 102 .1 overs (Saurabh Tiwary 238; Javed Khan 4-79, Shardul Thakur 2-94, Vishal Dabholkor 4-81) vs Mumbai: 210/5 in 69 overs (Aditya Tare 67, Hiken Shah 46 batting, Suryakumar Yadav 49 batting; Varun Aaron 2-28, Shahbaz Nadeem 2-64).   
At Mohali: Punjab: 184 all out vs Vidarbha (O/n: 75/1): 332/7 in 120 overs (Faiz Fazal 99, Ravi Jangid 104, Urvesh Patel 32 batting, Amol Jungade 59 batting; Sandeep Kumar 4-78, VRV Singh 2-75).
At Sambalpur: Delhi (O/n: 268/6 in 90 overs): 442 all out in 134.3 overs (Rajat Bhatia 158 n.o.; Sumit Narwal 40, Ashish Nehra 40; Suryakant Pradhan 3-131, Deepak Behera 3-107, Dhiraj Singh 2-86) vs Odisha: 121/3 in 42 overs (Natraj Behera 53 batting, Govind Podder 34).
GROUP B: AT Gwalior: Madhya Pra­d­esh: 115 all out and 121/2 in 31 overs (Jalaj Saxena 65, Naman Ojha 32 batting) vs Rajasthan (115/3) 282 all out in 79 overs (Robin Bist 84 n.o., Ashok Menaria 25; Ishwar Pandey 4-92, An­a­nd Rajan 2-65, Nikhil Sawke 2-49).
At Delhi: Railways (O/n: 210/4): 306 all out in 125.3 overs (Arindam Ghosh 88, Mahesh Rawat 68, Rongsen Jonathan 33; Ashok Dinda 3-95, Shib Paul 3-47, Saurasish Lahiri 2-19) vs Bengal: 65/1 in 45 overs (Gitimoy Basu 27 batting, Arindam Das 26). 
At Chennai: Baroda: 162 all out vs Tamil Nadu (O/n: 5/0) 101/3 in 42 overs (Abhinav Mukund 29; Yusuf Pathan 2-39).
At Ghaziabad: Services: 164 all out and 19/0 in 5 overs vs Uttar Pradesh (O/n: 86/3): 369 all out in 120.2 overs (Parvinder Singh 27, Eklavya Dviwedi 131, Amit Mishra 46; Nishan Singh 3-70, Shadab Nazar 3-85, Pratik Desai 3-51)
GROUP C: At Guwahati: Assam (O/n: 236/8): 247 all out in 105 overs (Syed Mohammad 101 n.o.; Harshad Gadekar 5-33, Shadab Jakati 2-48) vs Goa: 190/2 in 73 overs (Amogh Desai 97, Swapnil Asnodkar 57, Sagun kamat 28 batting).
At Hyderabad: Tripura (O/n: 281/2): 588/6 in 180 overs (Manisankar Mur­a­singh 150, Yogesh Takawale 212, Ab­bas Ali 105 batting; Ravi Kiran 2-90, Lalith Mohan 2-156) vs Hyderabad.
At Thalassery: Kerala: 214 all out and 155 all out in 44.3 overs (Sachin Mohan 25, Sachin Baby 43, Vinoop Manoharan 39; Vishal Bhatia 2-19, Gurvinder Singh 2-41, Bipul Sharma 4-32) vs Himachal Pradesh (O/n: 164/5) 174 all out in 40.3 overs (Nikhil Gangta 28; Prasanth Parameswaran 2-22, Padmanabahan Prasanth 7-54) and 110/7 in 33 overs (Prashant Chopra 36, Risdhi Dhawan 33 batting; Chovvakkaran Shahid 3-27, Vinoop Manoharan 4-35).
At Pune: Jammu & Kashmir: 85 all out and 131/1 in 36 overs (Adil Rishi 26, Obaid Haroon 54 batting, Bandeep Singh 42 batting) vs Maharashtra (O/n: 185/2) 401/9 decl in 109 overs (Harshad Khadiwale 87, Kedar Jadhav 41, Rohit Motwani 84, Anupam Sanklecha 37; Samiullah Beigh 4-136, Mohammed Mudhasir 5-87).