The pace duo of VS Thakur and AK Malik ripped through Delhi bundling them out a paltry 75 and forced the visitors to follow on after Himachal Pradesh piled up 343 in their first innings on the second day of the four-day Ranji Trophy group A tie in Dharamsala on Sunday.

Earlier resuming at their overnight score of 228 for 5, the hosts added 115 runs more to their total before being all out.

The Delhi batsmen failed to negotiate a tight spell of bowling by Thakur and Malik, who claimed six and four wickets respectively, with extras reading the highest score.

Delhi's first innings lasted only 23.3 overs before they were asked to bat again by the Himachal captain Sandeep Sharma after follow on.

Delhi, in their second essay, looked more determined as Virender Sehwag [Images] in particular produced some hard hitting strokes as he quickly raced to 31 off just 19 balls with seven hits to the fence.

Earlier, the Delhi team were immediately on backfoot as Thakur removed both the openers with scoreboard reading 28.

Malik too did not give any relief to Delhi as he joined Thakur and sent Akash Chopra, Shikhar Dhawan and Rajat Bhatia back to the pavilion.

Himachal captain did not use the services of other bowlers as Thakur and Malik did a fine job. Only V Bhatia got an over that too the last one of the day in Delhi second innings.

From here, Himachal will look to enforce a win as they take field on Monday against this star studded Delhi side with still two more days to go and the home team ahead by 230 runs.

Himachal Pradesh (1st innings):
M Gupta c A Bhandari b C Nanda 49
S Sharma lbw b I Sharma 9
M Sharma lbw b C Nanda 40
A Mannu c P Bisht b A Bhandari 4
B Sharma lbw b C Nanda 22
P Dogra b C Nanda 81
M Bisla c P Bisht b P Awana 50
S Singh b A Chopra 37
V Bhatia b I Sharma 2
A Thakur run out 0
V Malik not out 0
Extras: (b 8, lb 8, nb 33) 49
Total: (in 142.3 overs) 343 all out

Fall of wickets: 1-32, 2-103, 3-108, 4-151, 5-154, 6-253, 7-338, 8-343, 9-343

Bowling: A Bhandari 19-7-39-1, I Sharma 32-6-103-2, P Awana 22-7-42-1, R Bhatia 08-3-18-0, C Nanda 39.3-15- 74-4, V Sehwag 21-6-50-0, A Chopra 1-0-1-1

Delhi (1st innings):
G Gambhir lbw b A Thakur 13
V Sehwag b A Thakur 9
A Chopra c S Sharma b V Malik 7
S Dhawan lbw b V Malik 5
R Bhatia c M Bisla b V Malik 7
P Bisht c M Bisla b A Thakur 9
M Manhas c S Sharma b V Malik 0
C Nanda lbw b A Thakur 5
A Bhandari not out 4
I Sharma b V Malik 1
P Awana b V Malik 0
Extras: (lb 5, nb 10) 15
Total: ( in 23.3 overs) 75 all out

Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-28, 3-38, 4-48, 5-51, 6-59, 7-64, 8-74, 9-75

Bowling: A Thakur12-0-45-4, V Malik 11.3-5-25-6

Delhi (2nd innings):
G Gambhir batting 3
V Sehwag batting 31
Extras: (lb 2, nb 2) 4
Total: (in 4 overs) 38 for no loss

Bowling: A Thakur 2-0-20-0, VS Malik 1-0-10-0, V Bhatia 1-0-06-0