Published: Feb 25, 2019, 01:17 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 25, 2019, 01:17 PM (IST)
Delhi claimed their third straight win of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2019, beating Kerala by seven wickets in their fourth Group A game at the Devineni Venkata Ramana Praneetha Ground, Mulapadu on Monday.
Delhi rode on Nitish Rana’s 36-ball 52 and a disciplined bowling performance by the bowlers that restricted Kerala to 139/7, who endured their first defeat in three matches.
Opting to bat first, Kerala were off to a poor start losing KB Arun Karthick and Rohan Prem in the first two overs, to Ishant Sharma and Navdeep Saini, respectively. Vishnu Vinod and Daryl Ferrario tried to steady the innings, but Vinod fell to left-arm spinner Pawan Negi for 18 followed by the wicket of Ferrario four runs later to Lalit Yadav.
Skipper Sachin Baby and Vinoop Manoharan then added 70 runs for the fifth wicket to revive Kerala. Baby fell in the 18th over to Subodh Bhati while Manoharan was the last man to fall for 38.
In reply, Unmukt Chand and Hiten Dalal started well scoring 34 run between them in 4.2 overs before Dalal was sent packing by Basil Thampi for 28 off 20 balls. Dhruv Shorey had a rare failure when he was scalped for four by MD Nidheesh. But, Rana and Chand added 64 runs for the third wicket to put Delhi on course. Chand departed in the 14th over to Sandeep Warrier with the score at 106.
Rana and Himmat Singh them took their team home with nine balls remaining and seven wickets in hand. Himmat remained unbeaten on 19 off 18.
Brief Scores: Delhi 140/3 (Nitish Rana 52*; Sandeep Warrier 1/19) beat Kerala 139/7 (Cinoop Manoharan 38; Navdeep Saini 1/17) by seven wickets.
