Dalal's ton helps Haryana draw with Delhi

New Delhi: Young and talented Sanjay Dalal (107*) enabled Haryana to salvage their pride by foring a draw against Delhi in their second encounter of the North Zone Ranji trophy four day league match at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground here on Wednesday.

Haryana resumed their overnight innings at 90 for two with in-form Jasvir Singh and Amarjeet Kaypee. Amit Bhandari raised hopes for his team as he trapped Kaypee in front of the wickets when he added only one run to his overnight score. Ashish Nehra then took the wicket of Jasvir Singh (47) at 107. Rajesh Puri and Sanjay Dalal then played with cool heads and added 124 runs off 39 overs before Puri was leg before to Nehra at 231. Puri scored 66 runs facing 113 balls. He remained at the wicket for 145 minutes and hit nine fours.

Ajay Ratra now joined Dalal. At this stage Delhi seemed headed for an outright victory because there were still 40 overs to be bowled. However full marks to Dalal and Ratra who showed a lot of responsibilty. Sanjay Dalal scored his first century while playing his 12th innings in his ninth Ranji Trophy match. He faced 231 balls and hit 11 boundaries. He was at the wicket for almost the whole day. Ajay Ratra also rose to the occassion and scored 61 runs with the help of seven boundaries. He faced 123 balls and was at the crease for 169 minutes. The two youngstars added 115 runs for the unfinished sixth wicket partnership and Haryana were able to pocket three valuable points. Haryana finished with 346 runs for the loss of five wickets. Ashish Nehra and Amit Bhandari captured two wickets each giving away 66 and 80 runs respectively.

Delhi have 13 points from two matches while Haryana increased their points tally to eight from an equal number of games.