Bengal medium pacer Shiv Shankar Paul claimed a six-wicket haul on a turning wicket as Delhi were skittled out for 148 in their first innings of the second Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match at the Jamia Milia Ground in New Delhi on Thursday.
Bengal, however, lost couple of wickets towards the end to reach 11 for two with Shubhomoy Das (7) in the crease. The visitors now trail by 137 runs with eight wickets remaining in their first innings.
Delhi had prepared a turning track to negate the Bengal duo of Paul and his pace colleague Ranadeb Bose. Though Bose was unfortunate to go wicketless, Paul turned out to be the wrecker-in-chief, while offie Sourashis Lahiri (2/59) and left-arm spinner Shibsagar Singh (1/29) also shared the spoils.
Delhi skipper Amit Bhandari's decision to bat first boomeranged as the hosts got off to a poor start when Test discard Aakash Chopra edged Paul to perish caught behind for nought. The other opener Shikhar Dhawan (8) also returned soon, misreading a Lahiri delivery to be castled.
Delhi soon slumped to 34 for three when the Bengal offie struck another blow, getting the better of Varun Kumar's (20) defence.
Delhi lost wickets at regular intervals and Paul rocked their middle order, first castling Rajat Bhatia (25) and then removing dependable Mithun Manhas (20) who gave rival skipper Deep Dasgupta his second catch behind the stumps.
Only a defiant Pradeep Chawla (33) put up some sort of fight till a Paul delivery caught him plumb in front, to signal his departure after a 98-ball knock during his two-hour stay in the middle.
After Chawla's dismissal, both Chetanya Nanda (13) and Amit Bhandari (0) fell leg before to Paul and Rahul Sanghvi's (0) run out dropped the curtain on the Delhi innings.
Scorecard
Delhi 1st innings
Aakash Chopra c D Dasgupta b S S Paul 0
Shikhar Dhawan b S Lahiri 8
Varun Kumar b S Lahiri 20
Mithun Manhas c D Dasgupta b S S Paul 20
Rajat Bhatia b S S Paul 25
Pradeep Chawla lbw b S S Paul 33
Sarandeep Singh c S S Paul b Shibsagar Singh 17
Chetanya Nanda lbw b S S Paul 13
Kunal Lall not out 2
Amit Bhandari lbw b S S Paul 0
Rahul Sanghvi run out 0
Extras (B-2, LB-2, NB-6) 10
Total (All out in 78.5 overs) 148
Fall of Wickets: 1/5 2/23 3/34 4/77 5/82 6/126 7/145 8/148 9/148
Bowling: Shiv Shankar Paul 19-7-25-6, Ranadeb Bose 14-4-22-0, Saurashis Lahiri 24-3-59-2, Shibsagar Singh 17.5-3-29-1, Manoj Tewari 3-1-4-0, Devang Gandhi 1-0-5-0
Bengal 1st innings
Arindam Das c Rajat Bhatia b Sarandeep Singh 3
Shubhomoy Das not out 7
Shibsagar Singh b Chetnya Nanda 0
Extras (NB-1) 1
Total (For two wickets in 8.4 overs) 11
Fall of Wickets: 1/10 2/11
Bowling: Amit Bhandari 3-1-5-0, Kuunal Lall 2-0-3-0, Sarandeep Singh 2-2-0-1, Chetanya Nanda 1.4-0-3-1.
