Manhas, Manan to rescue after Viru, Gauti fail as Delhi concede 25-run lead

Both former India openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir flopped as Delhi conceded a lead of 25 runs against Gujarat in their Ranji Trophy second round match in Surat. Coming in at second down, Sehwag could make just one off 4 balls. Skipper Gambhir ground out a 31 off 79 balls with four fours as the visitors were saved by Mithun Manhas’s hundred (104) and young all-rounder Manan Sharma’s 64. The two put on 153 for the fifth wicket after their side was struggling at 49/4. Ashish Nehra’s late, lusty hits gave Delhi 37 runs as they managed to close in on Gujarat total on the third day. Left-arm spinner Akshar Patel took six wickets for the hosts. However, Sumit Narwal, who took a fifer in the first innings, took a couple of wickets while Vikas Mishra and Parvinder Awana took one each to reduce Gujarat to 47/4 in the second innings to keep Delhi afloat. Parthiv Patel and Venugopal Rao then stitched a partnership to take Gujarat to 89/4 by stumps. Delhi are behind by 114 runs.

Scores

Gujarat 320 & 89/4 (Parthiv Patel batting 28, Venugopal Rao batting 24, Sumit Narwal 2/15, Vikas Mishra 1/36, Parvinder Awana 1/11) lead Delhi 295 (Mithun Manhas 107, Manan Sharma 64, Virender Sehwag 1, Gautam Gambhir 31, Ashish Nehra 37, Akshar Patel 6/55) by 114 runs.