Bengal beat Delhi by 10 wickets

Off-spinner Sourashis Lahiri turned out to be the wrecker-in-chief with his five-wicket haul as Bengal crushed Delhi by 10 wickets to record their first win in the Ranji Trophy Elite Goup 'A' match in New Delhi on Saturday.

After their drawn match against Maharashtra, Bengal gained five points from this match while Delhi, the hosts, who had managed to draw their last match against Mumbai, remain without points.

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The pitch at the Jamia Milia ground turned out to be a bowlers' delight. While Shib Shankar Paul's six-wicket haul broke Delhi's back in the first innings, Chetanya Nanda's identical feat brought Delhi back in the contest but Lahiri today ran through the Delhi order to dash the hosts' hopes of a successful comeback.

After the host resumed their innings on 22 for no loss this morning, lanky Bengal pacer Ranadeb Bose earned the first breakthrough when his delivery rammed into Test discard Aakash Chopra's (18) pad plumb in front. Bose's pace colleague Shib Shankar Paul removed Varun Kumar (5) in identical fashion. Delhi was at a score of 34 for two then, and after the pacers gave the early breakthroughs, promising off-spinner Lahiri took over.

Before dependable Mithun Manhas (12) could get his eyes in, he went for a cut shot off Lahiri but ended up perishing caught behind and the last ball of the same over saw Lahiri getting the better of Rajat Bhatia's (0) defence and Delhi were 78 for four.

The last straw for the hosts came when opener Shikhar Dhawan's gritty 44-run knock came to an end when he holed out to Arindam Das off Lahiri. In the same over, Lahiri castled Sarandeep Singh for duck and Delhi were reeling at 94 for six.

Thereafter, Delhi lost wickets at regular intervals with Lahiri, Paul and left-arm spinner Shibsagar Singh sharing the spoils as the innings folded for just 131.

Paul returned with nine wickets from the match while Lahiri's second innings figures read 20-6-57-5.

Chasing a victory target of 69, Bengal openers Arindam Das (17) and Shubhomoy Das (46) guided the team to win.

Scorecard:

Delhi 1st innings 148 all out
Bengal 1st innings 211 all out

Delhi 2nd innings (Overnight 22 for no loss)
Aakash Chopra lbw b Ranadeb Bose 18
Shikhar Dhawan c Arindam Das b Sourashish Lahiri 44
Varun Kumar lbw b S S Paul 5
Mithun Manhas c Deep Dasgupta b Sourashish Lahiri 12
Rajat Bhatia b Sourashish Lahiri 0
Pradeep Chawla c Manoj Tewari b Sourashish Lahiri 17
Sarandeep Singh b Sourashish Lahiri 0
Chetanya Nanda not out 11
Kuunal Lall c L R Shukla b S S Paul 1
Rahul Sanghvi lbw b Shibsagar Singh 4
Amit Bhandari b S S Paul 3
Extras (B-6, LB-4, NB-6) 16
Total (All out in 59.1 overs) 131

Fall of Wickets: 1/33 2/38 3/78 4/78 5/94 6/94 7/111 8/114 9/126

Bowling: Shiv Shankar Paul 15.1-6-17-3
Sourashis Lahiri 20-6-57-5
Manoj Tewari 1-0-1-0
Ranadeb Bose 10-2-27-1
Shibsagar Singh 13-4-16-1

Bengal 2nd innings
Arindam Das not out 17
Shubhomoy Das not out 46
Extras (NB-6) 6
Total (For no loss in 23.3 overs) 69

Bowling: Kuunal Lall 3-0-12-0
Chetanya Nanda 9-2-25-0
Sarandeep Singh 4-0-6-0
Rahul Sanghvi 4-0-16-0
Amit Bhandari 3.3-0-10-0

- UNI