Chasing a stiff target of 378 runs for victory Delhi left in spot of bother at stumps on 113/3, loosing the third wicket on the very last ball of the day’s play when Harbhajan get rid off R.Bhatia for well made 31 runs. Now Delhi hopes rely on the in-form batsman G.Gambhir who is batting beautifully on 51 runs with eight strokes to the fence. Earlier Zaheer Khan strikes for Rest of India in quick succession to left Delhi in hole as he dismissed Delhi captain Virendra Sehwag (3 runs) and Virat Kohli (16 runs) both were dismissed lbw. Delhi still need 265 runs for an outright victory with seven wickets in their second innings in tact. Delhi as their innings started hoped that there captain will lonely play a big inning to helped the team to reach the daunting task of 378 runs as he walked in as opener because of little injury to Akash Chopra. Gambhir, who was not out on 51 off 87 balls with eight hits to the fence, and Rajat Bhatia (31 off 69 balls with five boundaries) then retrieved the situation with a 76-run third wicket stand off 134 balls before the later was caught by Mahendra Singh Dhoni off Harbhajan Singh off the last ball of the day. Earlier during Rest of India’s inning Ishant Sharma strikes for Delhi to left ROI in spot of bother but Indian One day and T20 captain M.S.Dhoni played a superb inning with aggression and caution to helped his team to get the lead over 350 runs. He hit twelve fours and one huge six in his inning of 84 runs of 113 balls. Other player who batted with lots of maturity and patience from ROI was Rahul Dravid who batted for 297 minutes and faced 211 balls before being dismissed by C.Nanda for 69 runs. C.Nanda (48/5) and Ishant Sharma (3/52) put a great bowling effort to restrict the Rest of India inning to 302 runs. Now it’s up to Indian captain Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh to exploit the condition on 4th day play when Delhi resume their run chase from ROI point of view they need to get rid off Gautam Gambhir early to tighten the grip on the match. Match Summary (Day3) Rest of India – 252/10 in 81.3 Overs W.Jaffer- 50 R.Dravid – 46 I.Sharma – 12.3-5-22-3 P.Sangwan– 15-1-57-3 Delhi – 177/10 in 57 Overs V.Sehwag – 43 A.Chopra – 42 Z.Khan– 9-0-31-4 Harbhajan Singh– 13-2-32-2 Rest of India – 302/10 in 92.5 Overs M.S.Dhoni- 84 R.Dravid – 69 C.Nanda– 26.5-8-48-5 I.Sharma– 21-7-52-3 Delhi – 113/3 in 31 Overs G.Gambhir – 51* R.Bhatia – 31 Z.Khan– 8-0-18-2 Harbhajan Singh– 4-2-11-1 |
