Rajat Bhatia struck three blows as Delhi had Saurashtra tottering at 175 for 7 in their first innings at stumps on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Group 'A' match in Delhi on Friday.
The visitors are still 69 runs behind Delhi's first innings total of 244.
Saurashtra had a disastrous start, as opener Vaghela was clean bowled by Ishant Sharma. The visitors failed to put up any meaningful resistance to the Delhi bowlers and kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
The fifth wicket partnership of 73 runs between Shitanshu Kotak (77, 10 x 4) and P S Mehta (27, 3 x 4) propped Saurashtra as they battled to restore a level of respectability to the score.
Their resistance came to an end when both were dismissed in quick succession.
Bhatia was the most effective among the Delhi bowlers. He picked the vital wickets of Kotak, in-form Cheteshwar Pujara (11, 1 x 4) and Shah (0), giving away just nine runs in his 13 overs.
Scorecard
Delhi (1st Innings): 244
Saurashtra (1st innings):
K Vaghela b Sharma 3
S Jogiyani c Chopra b Sharma 25
S Kotak c Dhawan b Bhatia 77
C Pujara lbw b Bhatia 11
J Shah c Bisht b Bhatia 0
P Mehta c Bisht b Bhandari 27
R Jadeja c Bisht b Sangwan 1
R Dhurv batting 12.
Extras: (b 7, lb 4, w 2, nb 6) 19.
Total: (for seven wkts, in 77.2 overs) 175
Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-61, 3-83, 4-83, 5-156, 6-156, 7-175.
Bowling: P Sangwan 20.2-3-55-1, I Sharma 21-4-61-2, A Bhandari 14-7-22-1, R Bhatia 13-7-9-3, C Nanda 8-1-16-0, M Manhas 1-0-1-0
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