Sehwag hits ton as Delhi pile up runs

Mandi: A brilliant 165 by Virender Sehwag and a quick 72 by Mithun Minhas helped Delhi to pile up a massive score of 573 for seven on the second day of their four day league match of the North Zone Ranji Trophy tie against Himachal Pradesh here on Sunday.

Resuming their innings at the overnight score of 313 for thee, Delhi lost the wicket of skipper Ajay Sharma at 376. Akash Malhotra who came next could not score any run and the fifth wicket fell at 379. Ajay Sharma failed to complete his century as he was run out, while trying to take a second run, following a direct throw by Rajiv Nayyar from cover. He made 85 runs with the help of six boundaries and two sixes. He batted 269 minutes and faced 188 balls. Mithun Minhas contributed 72 runs with the help of 11 boundaries before he was caught by Arun Verma off Shakti Singh at 504.

Virender Sehwag who was on 30 at close of play yesterday, scored a brilliant 165 with the help of 13 hits to the fence and five huge sixes. He batted 265 minutes and faced 163 deliveries before he was bowled by Nischal Gaur. It was his fourth century in his 15th innings in his 12th Ranji Trophy game and his highest individual score. His highest score earlier was 163 against Orissa at Cuttack in last year's super league match. He and Ajay Sharma added 138 runs for the fourth wicket stand.

Sunil Joshi (35) and Sandeep Angurala (2) were at the crease when their skipper declared the innings. Parveen Sharma and Shakti Singh captured two wickets each giving away 91 and 133 runs respectively.

In reply, Himachal Pradesh scored 148 for five at close of play. Jaswant Rai, the only batsman to put up a show of defiance was at the crease with 48 runs. He and Yashwinder (38) added 87 valuable runs for the unfinished sixth wicket.

Himachal lost its first wicket with just four runs on the board and were 55 for five before Jaswant Rai and Yashwinder helped the hosts to reach 148 without any further loss. Skipper Rajiv Nayyar, who created a world record of the longest individual innings of 1015 minutes stay at the crease during his 271 in the previous league match against Jammu & Kashmir at Chamba, could score only four runs.

Robin Singh junior and Sandeep Angurala captured two wickets each giving away 40 and 60 runs respectively while Arun Singh took one wicket for 28 runs. Himachal Pradesh still need 274 runs with five wickets in hand to avoid the follow-on.