Delhi hold advantage in 217 chase

A combined seven wickets from left-arm spinner Vikas Mishra and bowling allrounder Vikas Tokas set Delhi up for a 217-run chase on the final day with 10 wickets in hand, after restricting Madhya Pradesh to 283 on the fourth day in Vijayawada. An outright win may not be an immediate concern for Delhi, who finished on 8 for 0 at stumps, having earlier fetched a first-innings lead to bolster their chances of an entry into the semi-finals.

Resuming on 47 for 2, MP lost overnight batsman Shubham Sharma and Naman Ojha (3) off the fourth and fifth overs of the day. Sharma's overnight batting partner Puneet Datey, however, held one end and played out 143 balls for his 60, adding 100 runs for the fifth wicket with captain Devendra Bundela (33). Datey and Bundela, however, fell within the space of four balls - to left-arm spinners Mishra and Manan Sharma respectively - leaving MP on 153 for 6, before Harpreet Singh, MP's leading run-scorer this season, pinched 78 off 126 balls to steer his side past 275, stitching together fifty partnerships with Ankit Sharma and Mihir Hirwani.

Mishra's four-for was ably supported by medium-pacer Tokas, whose three-wicket haul included two lower-order wickets as they plucked out MP's last three batsmen - Hirwani, Harpreet and Ishwar Pandey - within the space of three overs for ony seven runs, setting themselves a target of 217.

Delhi changed their opening combination and sent out Tokas in place of Gautam Gambhir to partner Kunal Chandela, who scored 81 in the first innings. They played out three overs before stumps with both Tokas and Chandela scoring four runs each.