Viru gone, Gambhir holds fort

BARODA: Zaheer Khan was razor-sharp during an afternoon spell that titled the balance of the match in Rest of India’s favour though Gautam Gambhir remained steadfast.

Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh looked increasingly effective going into Day Four. Rahul Dravid toiled hard and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who missed out on a century, ensured Delhi had a stiff target of 378 to chase.

Zaheer trapped Sehwag in front of his stumps. The Delhi skipper didn’t move his feet early on. With Aakash Chopra off the field mid-way through the day, after spraining his right foot while fielding, Sehwag and Gambhir opened the second innings.

Soon Virat Kohli walked across the stumps to play onto the leg-side but this ball from Zaheer struck him in line. It was up to Gautam Gambhir to keep the fight alive.
Gambhir, who made next to nothing in the first innings, soon found his feet. On occasions, he walked down the wicket and countered the new ball and neutralised the swing. He walked into a Zaheer delivery and hit it past mid-on to the boundary.

Gambhir then went down the wicket slashed and slashed Rudra Pratap Singh past point. Kumble’s first ball of the innings was greeted by a flick to the boundary from all-rounder Rajat Bhatia. However, Bhatia fell off the last ball of the day when Dhoni pouched a sharp chance down the leg-side off Harbhajan.

Earlier, Gambhir reached his fifty by hitting Harbhajan over mid-off for a boundary.

MSD SHINES
Earlier, Dhoni kept the scoreboard ticking at a healthy pace. He joined Dravid at the fall of VVS Laxman’s wicket. Dhoni had a keen contest with Sehwag.  He stepped out and attacked Sehwag at will. Then just before lunch, Dhoni reverse swept Sehwag. The first of the four reverse sweeps he was to play against the Delhi skipper.

After lunch, Dhoni smashed leg-spinner Chetanya Nanda (548) for a six over long off. Then, much to Sehwag’s embarrassment, Dhoni reverse swept him to the third man boundary off consecutive balls to move from 41 to 49. Dhoni reached his half century — once again using the reverse sweep to send the ball to the boundary. Dhoni looked good for a century. However, after swatting Ishant Sharma, who was using the second new ball, over the covers, Dhoni fell while chasing a wide ball.

Earlier, Dravid perished after holding fort. Nanda got the better of Dravid. The lanky spinner looped a ball that pitched on off and moved away. Dravid managed to get a thick edge that Aakash Chopra caught at first slip. Nanda was in the middle of a 16 over spell that was to give him four wickets.

Scorecard
ROI (1st innings): 252 all out; Delhi (1st innings): 177 all out; ROI (2nd innings): W Jaffer c Chopra b Sangwan 21, R Dravid c Chopra b Nanda 69, S Badrinath b Ishant 36, M Kaif c Bisht b Ishant 0, VVS Laxman c sub (Tehlan) b Nanda 18, MS Dhoni c Kohli b Ishant 84, A Kumble lbw b Nanda 9, H Singh c Manhas b Nanda 0, Z Khan b Nehra 4, RP Singh lbw b Nanda 24, M Patel n.o. 1; Extras: (b-12, lb-13, nb-11) 36; Total: (all out in 92.5 overs) 302; FoW: 1-44, 2-111, 3-111, 4-152, 5-207, 6-241, 7-241, 8-261, 9-277; Bowling: Nehra 20-1-84-0, Sharma 21-7-52-3, Nanda 26.5-48-5, Sangwan 11-0-35-1, Sehwag 12-2-55-0, Bhatia 2-0-3-0; Delhi (2nd innings) G Gambhir batting 51, V Sehwag lbw b Zaheer 3, V Kohli lbw b Zaheer 16, R Bhatia c Dhoni b Harbhajan 31; Extras: (b-1, lb-9, nb-2) 12; Total: (for 3 wickets in 31 overs) 113; FoW: 1-5, 2-37, 3-113; Bowling: Zaheer 8-0-18-2, Singh 8-0-37-0, Patel 6-1-23-0, Kumble 5-1-14-0, Harbhajan 4-2-11-1