Veteran all-rounder Rishi Dhawan's unbeaten 95 and a patient 85 by opener Ravi Thakur took Himachal Pradesh to 311 for eight at stumps against Delhi on the second day of their sixth round Group D Ranji Trophy match in Dharamsala on Saturday. (Streaming| More Cricket News)
Delhi scored 264 on the opening day and the hosts currently enjoy a lead of 47 runs and with two wickets still intact. They would like to increase it in order to put pressure on a brittle Delhi batting line-up which crossed 275 only once this season.
Starting the day at 24 for 1, Himachal Pradesh were reduced to 169 for five at one stage but Dhawan consolidated the innings with his run-a-ball knock that comprised 16 boundaries and a six.
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The maximum was a pulled six off left-arm pacer Siddhant Sharma over square-leg while Himanshu Chauhan also got hit for half a dozen of boundaries.
Siddhant (4/101 in 26 overs) had the best figures but opener Thakur did get into him with seven boundaries to his credit out of the 14 that he conceded apart from the maximum.
While Himanshu got a bit pasting from Dhawan, he was more economical going for only 66 runs in 22 overs, picking up two wickets.
Another medium pacer Akhil Chaudhary also got two wickets.
Brief scores
In Dharamsala: Delhi 264 vs HP 1st Innings 311/8 (Rishi Dhawan 95 batting, Ravi Thakur 85, Siddhant Sharma 4/101, Himanshu Chauhan 2/66).
In Cuttack: Uttarakhand 342 (Vaibhav Bhatt 115, Jiwanjot Singh 90, Sunil Roul 3/93) vs Odisha 123/6 (Abhay Negi 2/33).
In Puducherry: J&K 106 and 152 (Sagar Udeshi 3/48) vs Puducherry 172 and (target 87) 35/7 (Abid Mushtaq 5/17).
In Indore: Madhya Pradesh 1st Innings 454 (Himanshu Mantri 111, Saransh Jain 70, Akash Singh 4/97, Mahesh Pithiya 3/103) vs Baroda 1st Innings 104/6 (Mitesh Patel 67, Anubhav Agarwal 3/41).
