Delhi inch towards first-innings lead

Delhi 309 for 5 (Dhawan 106, Bhatia 101*) trail Tamil Nadu 347 by 38 runs
Scorecard

Two contrasting cricketers made similar centuries as Delhi inched towards taking the all-important first-innings lead in their Ranji Trophy match against Tamil Nadu. Shikhar Dhawan with 106 and Rajat Bhatia, unbeaten on 101, helped generously by Vijay Dahiya, who chipped in with a breezy unbeaten half-century, pushed Delhi to 309 for 5 at the end of the third day, leaving themselves only 39 more to capture the first innings lead in this match.

Dhawan is tall, upright at the crease, and bats left-handed, while Bhatia is stocky, compact in his approach and right-handed. Dhawan looked to hit the boundaries, mostly square of the wicket on the off side, with weight firmly on the back foot, capitalising on any width on offer. Bhatia, certainly no mug with the bat but by no means outrageously gifted, understood his role perfectly and looked to stay on the front foot as much as possible on a wicket that continued to show signs of variable bounce.

When the day began with Delhi on 54 for 2, it appeared that Tamil Nadu had things under control. After only five runs were added to the overnight score Vijaykumar Yomahesh trapped Mithun Manhas in front of the stumps. Then, Virat Kohli, making his debut, became Yomahesh's third victim as he edged one to the keeper. At 75 for 4, Tamil Nadu had Delhi just where they wanted them.

Then, slowly but surely, the game began to slip out of their grasp. Surprisingly S Badrinath, the captain, showed little faith in his debutant left-arm spinner, C Suresh, and barely employed him all day, using him for only four overs, even as the mediumpacers toiled hard with little reward.

With no results coming through, and a couple of close shouts for lbw being turned down, the spirit of the mediumpacers flagged, and with it went the accuracy. Dhawan was given too much width outside the off, and he took full toll, cutting and driving through point as left-hand batsmen tend to do with ease.

Bhatia, known for his commonsense in cricketing circles, just bedded down and refused to be dismissed. He attempted no extravagant shots, although a couple of punches straight back down the ground would have done any batsman proud. He showed the full face of the bat to the ball, and refused to be tempted into playing a horizontal bat shot even when the ball was sent through wide.

From 75 for 4, Bhatia and Dhawan nursed the score along to 208, adding 133 for the fifth wicket, before the second new ball gave Yomahesh his fourth wicket as Dhawan hit one uppishly to Hemang Badani. Dhawan's 106 had come on the back of a rather ordinary previous season, and proved to be critical in the context of the game.

Wicketkeepers tend to be annoyingly cheeky batsmen, and Dahiya is no exception. While it seems like he's always giving you a chance by playing with an open face, he's merely playing to his strengths, and Tamil Nadu certainly missed a trick on the day by not putting out a fielder at third-man early on. Dahiya slashed three boundaries down to the vacant third-man region and then followed it up with two crisp cover-drives, and all of a sudden the runs began to come easily.

Bhatia had played the grafter's hand all along, but the infusion of Dahiya, and the momentum that came with the manner in which he rattled off boundaries, gave Delhi a big boost as they neared Tamil Nadu's score. Bhatia brought up his fifth first-class century - his fourth for Delhi, and second against Tamil Nadu - and his former team-mates could only grudgingly applaud.

Meanwhile Dahiya was celebrating a milestone of his own, having reached his half-century, and was unbeaten on 51 from only 78 balls, with 9 fours. No-one else who had made 50 or more in the game had scored at a strike rate of even 50 runs per 100 balls. The manner in which the ball sped away to the fence made you wonder if somehow the outfield had suddenly quickened overnight, but that could not possibly have happened without the grass being cut, and that's not something that's done in the middle of a game.

Tamil Nadu will make one final push on the fourth morning, with their mediumpacers, to defend 347, but unless Delhi's batsmen commit suicide, it's hard to see five wickets falling for 39 runs on this pitch.