Delhi dashed Tamil Nadu's hopes of an outright victory with a brilliant recovery, scoring 366 for 8 in reply to the hosts' massive first innings total of 481 for 6, on the third day of the Elite Group 'B' Ranji trophy match in Chennai on Thursday.
Riding on a brilliant, unbeaten 152 by Rajat Bhatia (357 mins, 237 balls, 15 fours, one six) Delhi, who were tottering at 85 for 3 at stumps on Wednesday, put the Tamil Nadu bowlers, including spinners Ashish Kapoor(3-107), who gave the team the breakthroughs on day 2, and left-armer R Ramkumar (1-104), to sword.
Bhatia added 102 runs for the eighth wicket with Chaitanya Nanda (24,133 balls, three fours) off 228 balls in a 158-minute stand, which enabled Delhi to stave off the follow-on.
Delhi are still 115 runs behind with two wickets in hand, but they achieved the objective of staving off the ignominy of losing outright.
Resuming at the overnight score of 85 for 3, Delhi lost overnight batsmen Mithun Minhas for 89 (167 balls,11 fours, one six) and A Jain (8 fours, 47 balls).
Minhas and Bhatia had a crucial partnership for the fifth wicket after Jain fell. They added 94 runs off 139 balls to steady the Delhi innings.
Delhi lost their fifth wicket at 211 when Minhas fell for 89 and then slumped further to 228 for 7 after the loss of Varun Kumar (1 off four balls) and Kuldeep Rawat (2) cheaply.
But just as it appeared that they would be forced to follow-on, Rajat and Chetanya Nanda came together in a crucial three figure stand to steer Delhi out of trouble.
Amit Bhandari (10, 21 balls, one four, one six) was at the wicket with Rajat when the day's play ended.
Apart from Ashish Kapoor and Ramkumar, medium pacer R Jesuraj shone for Tamil Nadu, with figures of 2-35.
Scorecard
Tamil Nadu (1st innings): 481 for 6 decl
Delhi (1st innings):
A Chopra c Karthik b Vignesh 1
S Dhawan b Kapoor 16
M Tehlan lbw Kapoor 25
M Manhas b Kapoor 89
Aditya Jain c Kapoor b Jesuraj 8
R Bhatia not out 152
Varun Kumar run out (Vasudevadas/Ramkumar) 1
K Rawat c Karthik b Jesuraj 2
C Nanda b Ramkumar 24
A Bhandari not out 10
Extras: (b 7, lb 11, nb 20) 38
Total: (8 wickets, 122 overs) 366
To bat: Y Sachdeva.
Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-34, 3-69, 4-117, 5-211, 6-213, 7-228, 8-330.
Bowling: Jesuraj 21-7-35-2 (3nb), Vignesh 12-1-53-1 (9nb), Kapoor 44-5-107-3 (5nb), Ramkumar 32-2-104-1, Vidyut 6-0-21-0, Badrinath 3-0-13-0, Sriram 4-0-15-0 (3nb).
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