Delhi dismiss Punjab for 74 at Roshanara

New Delhi, Dec 22 (IANS) Delhi bowlers had another successful outing on a challenging wicket at Roshanara, bowling out Punjab for 74 on day one of the Ranji Trophy round eight here Sunday.

Ashish Nehra (4/31), Parvinder Awana (3/20) were the main wicket takers as Punjab’s innings lasted only 26.4 overs. Number eleven Manpreet Gony was the highest scorer with 29 while Yuvraj Singh departed without scoring.

Delhi were 46 for two in response with Unmukt Chand (21 not out) and Mithun Manhas (6 not out) in the middle.

A controversy has surfaced in Delhi cricket with the team opting to play at Roshanara over an international ground like the Feroz Shah Kotla.

The move has surely helped their tournament campaign, Delhi having won all their games at Roshanara.

In another Group A match held in Bangalore, opener Lokesh Rahul (120 not out) kept Karnataka afloat as Mumbai restricted the hosts to 228 for seven in their first innings at stumps.

Asked to bat first, Karnataka struggled against the leash as Mumbai bowlers not only kept a lid on the run flow, but also took wickets at regular intervals and it was left to Rahul to hold the innings together with a gritty unbeaten century.

Rahul and Stuart Binny (38) added crucial 82 runs for the fifth wicket as Karnataka recovered from 84 for four to end the day with a modest score.

For Mumbai, seamer Shardul Thakur and left-arm spinner Vishal Dabholkar took two wickets apiece as the visitors justified their decision to field first on winning the toss.

Brief scores:

Karnataka 228 for 7 (KL Rahul 120 not out) v Mumbai in Bangalore.

Delhi 46 for 2 (Gambhir 10) v Punjab 74 (Yuvraj 0, Nehra 4-21, Bhatia 2 for 4) in Delhi.

Gujarat 287 for 3 (Parthiv 109 not out, Rao 68 not out) v Odisha in Ahmedabad.

Jharkhand 233 for 5 (Nemat 85, Tiwary 10, Wakhare 3-59) v Vidarbha in Jamshedpur.

Group B

Baroda 348 for 5 (Wakaskar 128, Waghmode 94, Irfan 37) v Saurashtra in Rajkot.

Tamil Nadu 231 for 5 (Badrinath 50, Prasanna 56 not out, Vijay Shankar 57 not out, Pankaj 4-41) v Rajasthan in Chennai.

Madhya Pradesh 4 for 0 v UP 250 (Raina 1, Parvinder 72, Dwivedi 80 not out, Datey 3-48) in Kanpur.

Railways 85 for 5 (Khan 2-14) v Services in Delhi.

Group C

Goa 6 for 0 v Kerala 273 (Manoharan 87, Surendran 84, Baby 54, Jakati 3-62) in Porvorim.

Jammu and Kashmir chose to field v Hyderabad in Jammu (No play possible).

Maharashtra 15 for 0 v Himachal 228 (Rishi Dhawan 6, Fallah 3-48) in Pune.

Tripura 165 for 9 (Vijaykumar 4-34) v Andhra in Agartala.