Pacer Parvinder Awana got his second consecutive five-wicket haul as Delhi skittled out Karnataka for a paltry 192 in a Ranji Trophy Group league encounter at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, on Saturday.
Awana, who also claimed five wickets against Haryana in the last game, registered his eighth five-wicket haul in his 41st first-class game as Karnataka's decision to bat on a seaming track backfired.
At stumps, Delhi reached 44 for two losing the wickets of Unmukt Chand and Mohit Sharma for 1 and 0, respectively. Both wickets were taken by medium pacer H S Sharath.
Skipper Shikhar Dhawan looked in good touch and was unbeaten on 38 with Mithun Manhas for company.
With Karnataka languishing at the bottom of the nine-team table, it was a foregone conclusion that they wanted a result oriented wicket and a track aiding seamers was doled out.
Ashish Nehra, who has always been dangerous in favourable conditions, got Robin Uthappa out of the equation in the very first over with a ball that came back in and trapped him leg before for four.
Ganesh Sathish scored 12 before nicking one from Sumit Narwal to Puneet Bisht behind the stumps.
Awana then cleaned up Lokesh Rahul and before the home team could reach 70, their top-order was polished off.
Stuart Binny, who was the top-scorer with 61, tried to defy the odds as he added 46 runs for the seventh wicket with his skipper Vinay Kumar (28), but that certainly wasn't enough.
Awana got the ball to move both ways after pitching as he dismissed Rahul, KP Appanna and Abhimanyu Mithun with deliveries that either came in or held its line after pitching. He got the experienced Binny and wicketkeeper CM Gautham with ones that left the right-handers.
Delhi now need 149 runs to get the lead but Dhawan and Co. will be looking to put up a reasonable score which would enable them to enforce an outright win.
Having lost two away matches, Delhi need six points desperately in order to stay in contention for a quarter-final berth.
Brief scores: Karnataka 192 in 65 overs (Stuart Binny 61, Parvinder Awana 5/81) vs Delhi 44 for 2 in 15 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 38 not out).
