Date:22/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/22/stories/2008122256161800.htm

Sport - Cricket

Bhatia scores century in tame draw

JAIPUR: Rajat Bhatia’s century was the only bright spot in the redundant last day’s play of the Delhi-Rajasthan Ranji Trophy Super League match which ended in a tame draw at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium here on Sunday.

After Delhi’s hopes for a quarterfinal berth vanished into thin air, the visiting team saw no point in taxing its bowlers by pressing for a win.

So, skipper Aakash Chopra asked his batsmen to continue in the morning.

Bhatia saw a decent chance to better his personal record and utilised the opportunity well. He gathered his runs through ones and twos in his 181-ball 121. Besides, he struck eight boundaries and two sixes.

Tailender Pradeep Sangwan also concentrated on improving his batting stats and stayed at the wicket for a while to score his maiden first class half-century. His 53 came off 103 balls and included five fours and a six.

The duo of Bhatia and Sangwan gathered 127 runs for the eighth wicket as Delhi finished its first innings at a mammoth 688.

The result of the match was a foregone conclusion but Rajasthan went in to bat again to complete the formalities.

Justifying Delhi’s choice to bat on without any purpose, coach Vijay Dahiya said, “There was no motivation left (after we lost the race for the quarters). There was an opportunity for players to achieve personal records, so we kept on batting.”

The scores: Rajasthan — 1st innings: 295.

Delhi — 1st innings: Aakash Chopra c Vikram Singh b V. Chanwaria 210, Shikhar Dhawan c G. Singh b Mohd. Aslam 118, Virat Kohli c Vikram Singh b P. Singh 83, Mithun Manhas c V. Rao b G. Singh 12, Puneet Bisht c V. Rao b Mohd. Aslam 5, Rajat Bhatia b P. Singh 112, Yogesh Nagar b V. Yadav 16, Chetanya Nanda c V. Saxena b V. Yadav 9, Pradeep Sangwan c G. Singh b P. Singh 53, Parvinder Awana b P. Singh 23, Kapil Yadav (not out) 6; Extras: (b-21, lb-3, nb-12, wd-5) 41; Total: (in 178.4 overs) 688.

Fall of wickets: 1-280, 2-416, 3-435, 4-463, 5-465, 6-509, 7-527, 8-654, 9-659.

Rajasthan bowling: Pankaj Singh 38.4-5-125-4, Vikrant Yadav 35-6-116-2, Vinod Chanwaria 20-1-77-1, Mohd. Aslam 32-3-128-2, Gajender Singh 38-4-141-1, Venugopala Rao 10-0-44-0, Kuldeep Singh 3-0-27-0, Vineet Saxena 2-0-6-0.

Rajasthan — 2nd innings: Vineet Saxena b V. Kohli 12, V. Chanwaria c M. Manhas b P. Sangwan 0, Kuldeep Singh c C. Nanda b P. Awana 2, Robin Bisht (not out) 32, Vikram Singh (not out) 5; Extras: (nb-3, wd-1) 4; Total: (for three wickets in 19 overs) 55.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-4, 3-41.

Delhi bowling: Parvinder Awana 3-1-5-1, Pradeep Sangwan 3-1-4-1, Mithun Manhas 3-1-11-0, Rajat Bhatia 3-0-4-0, Virat Kohli 3-0-23-1, Kapil Yadav 3-1-7-0, Aakash Chopra 1-0-1-0. — Sports Reporter