Speedster Amit Bhandari claimed three wickets as Delhi took control of the Ranji Trophy match against Gujarat by restricting the hosts to 214 runs on the opening day at the Sardar Patel stadium at Motera, near Ahmedabad, on Sunday.

The visitors, in reply, were 49 for one at stumps in their first innings.

Bhandari was the pick of Delhi bowlers claiming three for 39 while left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra chipped in with two.

Electing to bat, Gujarat captain Mukund Parmar, playing in his 17th Ranji season, had less to celebrate as his batsmen failed to perform.

Barring Nilesh Modi (42) and Timil Patel (38), no other Gujarat batsman could stay on wicket for long as the hosts lost wickets at regular intervals.

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Even wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel, who made his Ranji Trophy debut after playing for India in 19 Test matches, failed to capitalise on his international experience and could manage just 27 runs before being caught by Mithun Manhas off the bowling of Rahul Sanghvi.

Delhi bowlers gave away only eight extras and wrapped up Gujarat's innings for just 214 runs in 77.5 overs.

In reply, Delhi started their innings on a confident note with two India players Akash Chopra and Gautam Gambhir leading the charge.

Gambhir, who played the last Test match against Australia at Mumbai recently, looked aggressive from the beginning and cracked six boundaries in his unbeaten 33 but Chopra could not survive for long and was caught by Nilesh Modi off Timil for just 19 runs.

Scorecard:

Gujarat Ist Innings:
N Modi lbw Bhandari 42
A Christian c Gambhir b Nehra 0
N Patel c A Sharma b Bhandari 0
M Parmar c A Chopra b Bhandari 12
P Patel c Manhas b R Sanghvi 27
K Damani lbw Sharandeep Singh 8
B Thakker c R Bhatia b Nehra 26
T Patel not out 38
S Trivedi c Bhandari b A Sharma 19
H Majmudar run out (Jadeja) 19
L Patel c A Sharma b R Sanghvi 15
Extras (b-2, nb-6) 8
Total (all out in 77.5 overs) 214
Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-12, 3-25, 4-61, 5-76, 6-118, 7-129, 8-151, 9-184.
Bowling: Ashish Nehra 14-4-35-2, Amit Bhandari 16-6-39-3, Sharandeep Singh 18-2-55-1, Rahul Sanghvi 17.5-3-47-2, Abhishek Sharma 12-2-36-1.

Delhi Ist Innings:
A Chopra c N Modi b T Patel 11
G Gambhir not out 33
A Sharma  not out 5
Total (For 1 wkt, 10 overs) 49
Fall of wickets: 1-38.
Bowling: Siddharth Trivedi 3-0-26-0, Hitesh Majumdar 5-1-12-0, Timil Patel 2-0-11-1.