Ferozeshah Kotla shed its tag of being a bowlers' graveyard as wickets -- as many as 20 --tumbled with Delhi gaining a crucial 34-run first innings lead over Rajasthan in their Ranji Trophy Super League Group A opener in New Delhi on Sunday.
Delhi openers Aakash Chopra (4) and Shikhar Dhawan (1) took guard for the second time today and at stumps, Delhi had scored six runs for no loss to stretch their lead to 40 runs.
Earlier, with a truant Sun playing hide-and-seek for major part of the day, Rajasthan skipper Mohammad Aslam had little hesitation as he inserted Delhi and pace spearhead Pankaj Singh vindicated the decision with a five-wicket haul as the hosts folded for just 119 in 38.3 overs.
Sumit Mathur proved an able ally, sclaping three for 32.
Pankaj, who has been one of the most rising pacers, returned an impressive figure of 15-3-43-5.
Shikhar Dhawan, who had slammed a half century in the practice match against Pakistan just a couple of days back at the same venue, topscored with 35 and only four of his teammates could reach the double figure.
Chips were down but the stint under bowling coach Manoj Prabhakar seems to have done a world of good to the Delhi pacers, who -- despite missing the service of an injured Ishant Sharma -- decided to have a go at the Rajasthan line-up with enough support from the 22-yard which had a green tinge about it that was enough to bring smiles to the pacers's face.
Left-arm pacer Pradeep Sangwan and medium pacer Rajat Bhatia scalped three wickets each, while veteran Amit Bhandari and left-arm pacer Kunal Lel chipped in with two wickets apiece to skittle out the visitors for a paltry 85 in 35.5 overs.
Scorecard
Delhi 1st innings:
A Chopra c Jhalani b Pankaj Singh 16
S Dhawan lbw b Aslam 35
M Tehlan run out 4
V Kohli c Jhalani b Mathur 19
M Manhas b Pankaj Singh 4
R Bhatia lbw b Mathur 0
P Bisht lbw b Pankaj Singh 5
C Nanda lbw b Pankaj Singh 10
PJ Sangwan c Jhalani b Pankaj Singh 10
Kunal Lal not out 2
A Bhandari b Mathur 2
Extras: (LB-7, NB-5) 12
Total: (All out in 38.3 overs) 119
Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-62, 3-67, 4-79, 5-84, 6-93, 7-97, 8-115, 9-116.
Bowling: P Singh 15-3-43-5, S Gehlot 8-1-29-0, S Mathur 12.3-2-32-3, M Aslam 3-1-8-1.
Rajasthan 1st innings:
V Saxena c Bisht b Sangwan 35
A Sharma c Kohli b Bhandari 6
G Khoda lbw b Bhandari 0
R Bist lbw b Kunal Lal 14
S Khan b Kunal Lal 5
R Kanwat c Chopra b Bhatia 5
R Jhalani c Bisht b Bhatia 5
Pankaj Singh c Bhandari b Bhatia 5
S Gehlot c Bisht b Sangwan 0
S Mathur not out 4
M Aslam c Bhandari b Sangwan 0
Extras (LB-2, NB-3 b-1) 6
Total (all out in 35.5 overs) 85
Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-7, 3-32, 4-38, 5-52, 6-64, 7-73, 8-73, 9-85.
Bowling: P Sangwan 11.5-3-9-3, A Bhandari 9-2-22-2, R Bhatia 11-7-16-3, Kunal Lal 4-0-10-
Delhi 2nd innings:
A Chopra not out 4
S Dhawan not out 1
Extras (LB-1) 1
Total (0 wickets; 0.5 overs) 6
Bowling: Pankaj Singh 0.5-0-5-0.
