Baroda fight back against Delhi

Delhi were reeling at 49 for three in their first innings after bundling out Baroda for a paltry 199 on the first day of five-day Ranji Elite group semifinals at Usha Raje Cricket grounds in Indore on Saturday.

Delhi's reply began on a disastrous note with India Test discards Akash Chopra and Gautam Gambhir returning to the hut in the first and fourth overs after scoring just three and two runs respectively.

Shikhar Dhawan followed the duo for a duck and the team total stood at five for three in the fifth over before Mithun Manhas and Aditya Jain stemmed the rot.

Manhas was going strong on 26 while Jain was on 18 as Delhi reached 49 for three at the draw of stumps.

Sumit Singh claimed two Delhi wickets for 25 while SY Veragi returned 1 for 21.

Earlier in the morning, Baroda failed to get off to a good start after winning the toss and their top four batsmen were back in the dressing room for a mere 62.

After lunch, the departure of well-set P Shah heralded the beginning of the end as no other batmen stayed in the middle, returning to dressing room one after the other.

Only SA Gaekwad (43) and P Shah (46) were able to negotiate the accurate bowling of A Bhandari and Narwal, who captured four wickets each for 52 and 56 runs respectively.

Scorecard:

Baroda (1st innings):
S Parab c Narwal b Bhandari 5
C Williams b Bhandari 14
A Bilakhia c Dhawan b Narwal 26
R Solanki c Dhawan b Bhandari 2
S Gaekwad c Bisht b Narwal 43
P Shah c Jain b Bhandari 46
Y Pathan c Awana b Narwal 14
R Pawar lbw b Manhas 6
S Vohra c Chopra b Narwal 27
S Singh lbw b Bhatia 0
S Veragi not out 10
Extras: (lb 1, w 1, nb 4) 6
Total: (all out in 64.4 overs) 199

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-25, 3-35, 4-62, 5-110, 6-152, 7-152, 8-171, 9-177, 10-199

Bowling: A Bhandari 16-4-52-4, S Narwal 20.4-5-56-4, P Awana 10-0-47-0, R Bhatia 12-3-26-1, C Nanda 3-0-14-0, M Manhas 3-2-3-1

Delhi (1st innings):
A Chopra c Shah b Veragi 3
G Gambhir lbw b S Singh 2
S Dhawan c Williams b S Singh 0
M Manhas not out 26
A Jain not out 18
Extras: 0
Total: (for 3 wickets in 19 overs) 49

Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-5, 3-5

Bowling: S Singh 8-3-25-2, S Veragi 7-1-21-1, S Vohra 4-2-3-0