DELHI ROCKED.

Vinay Kumar rips apart Delhi with 8- wicket haul

Takes career- best 8- wicket haul to dismiss hosts for 154

ON A greenish and damp pitch that assisted pacers, Karnataka's R Vinay Kumar ran through the Delhi batting line- up with a career- best eight- wicket haul to bundle out the hosts for 154 in the first innings of a Group B match of the Ranji Trophy Super League here on Tuesday.

Kumar returned excellent figures of eight for 32 runs in 21.4 overs as the top half of the Delhi crumbled like house of cards at the Roshanara Club. In his fifth Ranji season, the 25- year- old bowler justified captain Rahul Dravid's decision to bowl after winning the toss and he immediately made life miserable for the home side.

Delhi tried to regain the lost ground later in the day as pacers Sumit Narwal and debutant left- armer Pawan Suyal took one wicket each to reduce Karnataka to 20 for two wickets before a resolute KB Pawan ( 40 batting, 132 minutes, 86 balls, 7x4s) and Dravid ( 33 batting, 90m, 63b, 5x4s) rectified the equation with their unbroken 71- run partnership for the third wicket in 20.2 overs.

But the star of the day was Kumar. It was due to his superb and teasing outswingers that no Delhi batsman could even score a half- century. Batting at No.

8, wicket- keeper Punit Bisht saved his team from total embarrassment as he dug into make the top score of 31 not out ( 71m, 44b, 6x4s).

Bisht found an able ally in pacer Parvinder Awana ( 17, 35m, 20b, 3x4s) and the two added a priceless 34 for the ninth wicket to prevent Delhi from being bundled sooner than later. Only five players, including Bisht and in- form opener Shikhar Dhawan ( 26, 100m, 70b, 4x4s), entered double- digit scores. Mayank Tehlan too defied the rampaging Karnataka bowlers for 86 minutes to score 28 ( 5x4s).

Luckily for Delhi, who are missing Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Ashish Nehra and Ishant Sharma, there were not many spectators at the ground as they cut a sorry figure. They must thank the club rules that don't allow non- members to enter the premises.

But Aakash Chopra's team might not have faced such a miserable situation had the match been played at Ferozeshah Kotla. It was relocated due to the fear of the pitch being low and slow, as it has behaved so after having been re- laid in the off season.

The Delhi team management was keen on playing matches at the Palam Ground after captain Aakash Chopra, coach Vijay Dahiya and other senior players liked its pitch during the Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 Tournament. But the Services ground was not available and so they had to settle for Roshanara.

But the alternate venue suited Kumar almost perfectly as he single- handedly destroyed a team that had piled up 591 against Vadodara in their previous match last week. The pacer, who had taken three wickets in Karnataka's big win over Uttar Pradesh in their first match in Meerut, admitted the pitch helped him expose the chicks in Delhi batsmen's armour.

" There was grass on the wicket. It was a bit slow and runs were difficult to score," he said after a memorable day.

As Karnataka replied, Delhi's all- pace attack -- spinner Chetanya Nanda is injured and Yogesh Nagar can't bowl due to the fear of being called for chucking again but comeback man Abhishek Sharma could bowl leg- spin if required -- took two quick wickets to make a much of it. Sumit Narwal had Muralidhren Gautam leg before the wicket and debutant Sayal took his maiden wicket when he induced an edge from Amit Verma's bat for Dhawan to take an easy catch in slip.

Delhi ( 1st innings): 154 all out in 54.4 overs ( A Chopra c Dravid b Kumar 6, S Dhawan c Pandey b Mithun 26, G Chabra b Kumar 6. A Sharmac Naidu b Kumar 0, R Bhatia c Dravid b Joshi 7, M Tehlan c Akhil b Vinay 28, Y Nagar lbw b Kumar 13, P Bisht not out 31, S Narwal b Kumar 0, P Awana b Kumar 17, P Suyal b Kumar 4.

Extras: ( b 10, lb 3, w 1, nb 2) 16. Fall of wickets: 1- 12, 2- 39, 3- 39, 4- 54, 5- 61, 6- 92, 7- 106, 8- 106, 9- 140. Bowling: Kumar 21.4- 11- 32- 8, Mithun 12- 1- 47- 1, Aravind 13- 5- 30- 0, Joshi 7- 1- 32- 1, Akhil 1- 1- 0- 0. Karnataka ( 1st innings): 91 for two wkts in 30 overs: KB Pawan batting 40, CM Gautam lbw b Narwal 2, A Verma c Dhawan b Suyal 12, R Dravid batting 33. Extras: ( b 4) 4. Fall of wickets: 1- 7, 2- 20.

Bowling: Narwal 9- 1- 27- 1, Awana 6- 0- 30- 0, Suyal 8- 2- 18- 1, Bhatia 6- 3- 7- 0, Sharma 1- 0- 5- 0

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