Indore, Jan 21 (PTI) A clueless Delhi suffered another embarrassing defeat in Ranji Trophy, their second in three games this season, with an 86-run loss to Madhya Pradesh in their Elite Group D match here on Sunday.
The loss to MP will hurt Delhi more as they had put themselves in a strong position by bowling out the hosts for 171 on the opening day.
Resuming day three at 157 for five, MP managed to reach 251 in their second innings, setting a 218-run target for Delhi.
Delhi’s batters looked ill-equipped even on decent batting conditions and were bowled out for 131 after the umpires extended play beyond regulation close of play.
Vaibhav Kandpal (49 not out off 125) was the only one who could apply himself and eventually ran out of partners as Delhi were bowled out in 53.5 overs.
Delhi had lost to Puducherry in their Ranji opener before sharing a point with Jammu in a game marred by bad light. The season seems to be getting from bad to worse for the struggling outfit.
A change in captaincy after the loss to Puducherry has not been able to transform the fortunes of the team.
The batters have let the team down, starting from U-19 World Cup wining skipper Yash Dhull, who scored 33 off 46 balls on Sunday. His opening partner Salil Malhotra lasted only three balls.
For MP, the star of their second innings was skipper Shubham Sharma whose 73 off 74 balls in the second innings made all the difference.
It was an all-round effort with the ball as MP’s Anubhav Agarwal, Kulwant Khejroliya, Saransh Jain took two wickets each.
Brief Scores: At Indore: MP 171 and 251 in 78.1 overs (Shubham Sharma 73; Himanshu Chauhan 4/69). Delhi 205 and 131 all out in 53.5 overs (Yash Dhull 33, Vaibhav Kandpal 49 not out; Kulwant Khejroliya 2/30). MP beat Delhi by 86 runs for six points.
At Dehradun: Puducherry: 204 and 131 all out beat Uttarakhand: 123 all out and 157 all out (Yuvraj Chaudhary 46, Kunal Chandela 45; Gaurav Yadav 7/53) by 55 runs.
At Dharamsala: Baroda: 482 beat Himachal Pradesh: 184 and 280 all out in 70.3 overs (Gurvinder Singh 59, Nikhil Gangta 58, Akash Vashist 43; Bhargav Bhatt 4/32, Akash Singh 3/86) by an innings 18 runs.
At Cuttack: Odisha: 130 and 198 all out in 67 overs (Sandeep Pattnaik 100; Aquib Nabi 4/73) vs Jammu & Kashmir: 180 and 72/4 in 23.2 overs (Abdul Samad 24 batting; Rajesh Mohanty 3/29). J&K are chasing a target of 149 and they need 77 more runs to win on the fourth day.
