Delhi was starting at humiliation against a clinical Pondicherry at the halfway stage of their Ranji Trophy at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground here.
Saturday offered better conditions than one witnessed a day earlier and Pondicherry lapped it up with both hands. It restricted the home team to 148 after Gaurav Yadav returned his career-best haul of seven for 49 in the National championship and then made 113 for two when bad light stopped play on the second day.
Trailing by 35 runs with eight wickets in hand, Pondicherry is giving Delhi a taste of its own medicine that it administered to lesser teams not so long ago. Though the possibility of an outright result depends on playing time permitted by the prevailing weather, Pondicherry will be happy to ensure the first innings lead and collect more points than the host in the campaign-opener.
Before the Pondicherry batters kept two former internationals — Ishant Sharma and Navdeep Saini — at bay for the better part of the 29-over innings so far, it was Gaurav who thwarted Delhi’s plans of a reasonable first innings score.
Having taken two of the four wickets to fall on Friday, Gaurav choked Delhi on Saturday. Gaurav’s figures of 16.5-5-27-5 on this day accounted for the home team’s last five wickets after Saurabh Tiwari provided the breakthrough by sending back the reliable Himmat Singh.
An import from Madhya Pradesh this season, Gaurav improved over his previous best of five for 11 against Meghalaya in February, 2022. As a result, after starting the day at 40 for four, Delhi lost six wickets for an addition of just 108 runs.
A 47-run fifth-wicket stand between Himmat and Kshitiz Sharma and another 45-run eighth-wicket stand involving Navdeep Saini and Harsh Tyagi took Delhi closer to the 150-run mark.
If the Delhi bowlers were expected to exploit the conditions better, the Pondicherry top-order proved equal to the challenge and reinforced the advantage given by Gaurav’s dream spell.
The scores:
Delhi — 1st innings: Yash Dhull b Gaurav 2, Lakshay Thareja lbw b Mathew 19, Vaibhav Rawal lbw b Gaurav 9, Himmat Singh b Saurabh 24, Ayush Badoni lbw b Mathew 2, Kshitiz Sharma b Gaurav 28, Hrithik Shokeen c Dogra b Gaurav 0, Harsh Tyagi b Gaurav 34, Navdeep Saini (not out) 16, Ishant Sharma c Pande b Gaurav 0, Himanshu Chauhan b Gaurav 0; Extras (b-8, lb-5, w-1): 14, Total (in 62.5 overs): 148.
Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-30, 3-30, 4-38, 5-85, 6-86, 7-93, 8-138, 9-138.
Pondicherry bowling: Gaurav 26.5-6-49-7, Saurabh 15-5-39-1, Mathew 17-7-28-2, Krishna 3-0-10-0, Ahmed 1-0-9-0.
Pondicherry — 1st innings: Akash Kargave c Thareja b Ishant 28, Jay Pande lbw b Himanshu Chauhan 18, Santosh Ratnaparkhe (batting) 31, Paras Dogra (batting) 18; Extras (lb-13, w-5): 18, Total (for two wickets in 29 overs) 113.
Fall of wickets: 1-41, 2-65.
Delhi bowling: Ishant 9-2-28-1, Saini 10-0-31-0, Chauhan 7-0-32-0, Tyagi 3-0-9-0.
