Delhi battling to avoid follow on

Patiala: Delhi were battling to avoid the follow on at the end of the second day's play in their North Zone Cooch Behar Trophy match against Punjab here on Sunday. At stumps, Delhi at 164 for seven, still require 56 runs to avoid the follow-on, with only three wickets in hand.

Earlier, Punjab who resumed their first innings score of 323 for 6 were all out for 369 after 92 minutes of play. Overnight not out batsman Vivek Mahajan(44) was sent back to the pavilion without adding to his overnight score by R R Jha when he snicked an outswinger to 'keeper Chawla. But SP Singh went on to complete a splendid unbeaten 100. Out of the 46 runs scored on Sunday, Singh accounted for 36 runs. Wickets fell regularly at the other end but Singh carried on to remain not out. He stayed at the wicket for 199 minutes, faced 148 balls and sent the ball to the ropes 13 times, besides hitting a six.

R.R.Jha was the most successful bowler for Delhi. claiming seven wickets for 120 runs. Puru Singh got two wickets for 84 runs.

Delhi started their reply on a shaky note as opener Rajat Khanna (1) was bowled by left arm pace bowler Amit Uniyal with only seven runs on the board. Chetan Sharma (53) and Gautam Gambhir (27) then added 48 runs for the second wicket, when the latter was caught by 'keeper Sondhi off the bowling of off spinner Sanjay Dhull. Rajan Gupta joined Chetan Sharma but was run out for five.

Siddarth Verma (26) in the company of Chetan Sharma raised some hopes for his team, adding 50 runs for the fourth wicket. The partnership was broken by part time bowler Vivek Mahajan who had Chetan Sharma caught by Amit Uniyal. Chetan scored 53 runs off 108 balls during his stay of 167 minutes at the crease. He hit nine boundaries.

After Chetan's departure, no other batsmen stayed for long. They threw away their wickets at regular intervals. Pradeep Chawla (27*) and Puru Singh (9*) were at the crease at close of play.

Sanjay Dhull and Vivek Mahajan captured two wickets each giving away 28 and 11 runs respectively.