NEW DELHI: Delhi’s three-pronged pace attack led by Ishant Sharma decimated Hyderabad and forced them to follow on on Day 2 of their Elite Group A Ranji Trophy encounter at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Thursday.After the hosts finished on 284 in their first innings, the visitors collapsed for 69. Asked to bat a second time, Hyderabad were 20 for 2, trailing by 195 runs with eight wickets remaining and two days of play left.
With conditions favouring the faster bowlers, Simarjeet Singh (4/23 in 10 overs) and Ishant (4/19 in 10 overs) proved too hot to handle for the Hyderabad batsmen. Pawan Suyal (2/25 in 8.4 overs), bowling from a shortened run-up, chipped in as well.In his first spell, Ishant failed to grab a wicket as the visiting batsmen played him with caution. They left most of the deliveries, while a few flew past the outside edge. The 31-year-old’s economic spell meant the Tanmay Agarwal-led side tried to score off Simarjeet and Suyal. They ended up paying the price.
Suyal drew first blood as he breached opener Akshath Reddy’s defence for naught. Simrajeet then trapped the skipper leg before. Chaitanya Reddy (3), Himalay Agarwal (14), BP Sandeep (16), and K Sumanth (0) departed before the total reached 50. Reddy was Suyal’s second scalp after which he had to retire hurt while the other three were picked up by Simarjeet.
“My job was to support Ishant bhaiya by bowling tight lines. Initially, he was beating the batsmen but they took fewer risks against him. Perhaps, they thought they can attack me and I got wickets. Ishant bhaiya’s brief was simple, pitch the ball in right areas,” Simarjeet said on Thursday.
Ishant then came back for another spell and cleaned up the tail. It was not extreme pace from the Test specialist, but his accurate line and length that seemed to have scared the batsmen. Some of the lower-order players were retreating towards leg stump in order to avoid getting hurt.
Ishant was enjoying himself out there, signing autographs, joking with teammates and his presence definitely bolstered a beleaguered Delhi team, reeling from two below-par efforts in the two rounds. “He has helped all the bowlers. He keeps telling me what lines to bowl and what to do and what time,” Simarjeet added.
In their second essay, both Akshath and Chaitanya fell early off seam-bowling all-rounder Kunwar Bidhuri’s bowling and the hosts will be looking to finish the game in three days with a bonus point. Delhi, with only one point, are in the 13th spot on the combined table of Group A and B. Hyderabad are yet to open their account.Earlier, Delhi lost their last four wickets for 15 runs after Shikhar Dhawan (140) became the eighth batsman to be dismissed. Pacer M Ravi Kiran grabbed all the wickets as Delhi were dismissed for 284.
Brief scores
Group A: In Delhi: Delhi 284 (Shikhar Dhawan 140, Ravi Kiran 4/59, Mehdi Hasan 3/61) vs Hyderabad 69 (Ishant Sharma 4/19, Simarjeet Singh 4/23) & 20/2.