Irani Trophy: Munaf strikes to nail Delhi

The Ranji Trophy champion Delhi has been pushed to the back foot as Munaf Patel registered a four-wicket haul with an excellent display of bowling to give an edge to Rest of India (RoI) on the second day of Irani Trophy match at the Reliance Stadium in Vadodara.

In reply to Rest of India’s first-day play of 252, the entire Delhi team bundled out for just 177. Opener Akash Chopra and skipper Virender Sehwag contributed 42 and 43 respectively.

However, it was Munaf Patel who took the wickets of three top-order batsmen Akash Chopra (42 off 68), Virat Kohli (4 off 11), Mithun Manhas (4 off 7) and then Ashish Nehra to emerge with a figure of four wickets in a 9-over spell.

Among other bowlers, Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh took two wickets each.

Rest of India (ROI) is now on the driving seat after accumulating another 99 runs to taken an overall lead of 174 runs. At the stumps of second day, Dravid (34) and Subramaniam Badrinath (33) were at the crease.

Pradeep Sangwan was the lone wicket taker for Delhi, who dismissed Wasim Jaffer for 21 when the score was at 44.

Teams
Rest of India: Rahul Dravid, Wasim Jaffer, Mohammad Kaif, Subramaniam Badrinath, VVS Laxman, Mahendra Singh Dhoni(w), Anil Kumble(c), Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Rudra Pratap Singh

Delhi: Gautam Gambhir, Akash Chopra, Virender Sehwag(c), Mithun Manhas, Virat Kohli, Rajat Bhatia, Puneet Bisht(w), Chetanya Nanda, Pradeep Sangwan, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma.