Delhi charge on with Manan six-for

Manan Sharma harbours no illusion about being a deceptive left-arm spinner, but he can be pretty accurate even with a slightly round-arm action. His five wickets in the first innings were the result of staying wicket-to-wicket, he said, and not letting batsmen score easy runs on a slow Feroz Shah Kotla pitch with no disconcerting bounce. The odd ball stayed low, but defence-minded batsmen were not easy to dislodge. In the second innings, led by Virender Sehwag's 51, Haryana, who had fallen behind by 42 in the first innings, brought resolute defence to play. But Manan was more persistent and patient, and kept bowling wicket-to-wicket until he had six of them to leave Delhi a manageable target of 224.

This was an important effort from Manan with Ishant Sharma off the field with an injury he acquired during the warm-ups before the start of the day's play. Parvinder Awana was reduced to bowling round-arm on a pitch with little bounce to work with, and Pradeep Sangwan's aggression brought only two wickets. Manan, though, bowled 40.4 overs out of 93.4, including 30.4 that were non-stop except for a change of ends. He delivered the first over of Haryana's innings, took the wicket of Sehwag among his six, and ended up with his maiden 10-wicket match haul.

Delhi's batting is uncertain after the openers, but their openers - Gautam Gambhir and Unmukt Chand - managed to give another brisk start to a chase after knocking off 95 in 14 overs in the last match. Chand hit Harshal Patel for two fours in the first over here, Gambhir repeated the treatment to offspinner Jayant Yadav, who opened the bowling, and Delhi were on their way again.

The last time runs were scored so easily in this match was when Sehwag and Sachin Rana batted in the first session of the day. Haryana, effectively at 26 for 2, must have been buoyed by the absence of Ishant, but lost Himanshu Rana in the first over of the day to Awana. Sehwag and Sachin, names that might make fans go nostalgic, added 50 for the fourth wicket. As has become the habit with Sehwag nowadays he turned back the clock briefly, punching through cover, cutting hard, driving through mid-on, and offering solid defence when not doing so. Sachin stepped out and hit Manan for two sixes over long-on.

Manan, though, soldiered on and got Sehwag eventually. After the first innings he said his plan when bowling to Sehwag was to not provide any room. This time, Sehwag went back to a ball not short enough, and crucially, with no room and edged the intended late-cut to slip. Gambhir took the catch. Sachin then repeated the mistake; he stayed back to Manan and was caught right in front.

The rest of the Haryana batting line-up offered resistance. The partnership for the fifth wicket was worth 61, the seventh wicket 23, and the eighth 31, suggesting a pitch that had got easier to bat on, but Manan kept pegging away and ended the innings. There were three dropped catches, but none of them cost too much. That the surface had become easier to bat on was confirmed when Chand came out hitting hard, ending the day with a six over long-on.