Delhi on the backfoot against Railways

A captain's knock of 62 by Mithun Manhas was not enough to rescue a depleted Delhi side which finished day one of its four-day Elite group 'A' Ranji Trophy match against Railways at a precarious 194 for eight at New Delhi on Sunday.

Sent in to bat, Delhi never looked comfortable against some good bowling by the home side pacers, who took advantage of the patches of grass on the track to force Delhi on to the backfoot.

At stumps, Abhishek Sharma was batting on 8 while coach Madan Lal's son Kunal, one of the two players making his debut for Delhi today, was on one.

The four seamers -- Harvinder Singh, Zakir Hussain, J P Yadav and new captain Sanjay Bangar -- looked quite impressive as they made full use of the bounce that the track offered.

Harvinder and Bangar returned two wickets each while Yadav claimed the wicket of second debutant Pururaj Singh.

Spinner Kulamani Parida also came good to finish with figures of two for 33.

Delhi received a major jolt just before the start of the match when comeback-man Ajay Jadeja was ruled out after he failed a fitness test for a hamstring injury suffered during Delhi's second innings in the match against Mumbai.

Delhi, without Virender Sehwag, Akash Chopra and Gautam Gambhir, was looking to their youngsters to deliver the goods but they disappointed.

Delhi were in a spot of bother right from the start as Salil Oberoi and Pururaj's first wicket stand yielded 20 runs before the former was snapped by wicketkeeper Sudhir Wankhde of Harvinder after making just six.

Delhi and District Cricket Association president Chetan Chauhan's nephew Pururaj, whose selection raised many eyebrows, failed to justify the selectors' faith as he was trapped leg before for only 19.

Vijay Dahiya (24), Pradeep Chawla (8) and Jadeja's replacement Varun Kumar (15) also failed to last long as the team plunged to 135 for five at tea.

Manhas played a lone hand in taking the score past the 150-mark. After the captain's dismissal, Delhi lost two quick wickets at 165.

Today's showing put the Railways in the driver's seat and they are likely to continue to dominate for the next three days since Delhi are also without their frontline bowlers Ashish Nehra and Amit Bhandari.