Part time off-spinners Lalit Yadav and Nitish Rana shared six wickets amongst themselves as Delhi thrashed minnows Sikkim by 10 wickets in Vijay Hazare Trophy on Saturday to keep their slim quarter-final hopes alive. Having lost back-to-back games, Delhi were on the money at the CC&FC ground here as Sikkim were bundled out for 76 in 34.4 overs. Rana (3/12 in 6 overs), Yadav (3/12 in 8 overs) along with specialist off-break bowler Shivank Vasisht (1/16 in 6 overs) shared bulk of the spoils after Delhi elected to field on a track which is known for being tacky.
Out of the 11 Sikkim batters, eight of them couldn't even cross the five-run mark with Pankaj Rawat's 32 being the top score.
Needing to up the run-rate, the normally stodgy Dhruv Shorey (43 not out, 28 balls) and all-rounder Kunwar Bidhuri (33 not out of 28 balls) knocked off the runs in just 9.2 overs notch up the team's third win in five games. While Shorey's innings had eight fours, Bidhuri hit three fours and two sixes.
With 12 points and a net run-rate of 0.622, Delhi are now placed fourth in the group behind Assam (16 points, NRR 1.776), Karnataka (16 points, NRR 1.674) and Jharkhand (16, NRR 1.547), all of whom have four wins in their kitty.
In the other matches of the group, Jharkhand crushed Meghalaya by 192 runs while Rajasthan beat Vidarbha by six wickets. The fourth match in this group had Assam upsetting the mighty Karnataka by six wickets, riding on Swarupam Purkayastha's century.
Summarised Scores
1. Sikkim 76 in 34.4 overs (Lalit Yadav 3/12, Nitish Rana 3/12).
Delhi 77/0 in 9.2 overs (Kunwar Bidhuri 33 not out, Dhruv Shorey 43 not out).
Delhi won by 10 wkts.
2. Jharkhand 321/2 (Utkarsh Singh 128 not out, Virat Singh 112).
Meghalaya 129 in 40.3 overs (Punit Bisht 50, Vikash Singh 3/17).
Jharkhand won by 192 runs.
3. Karnataka 296/4 (Nikin Jose 100, Mayank Agarwal 64, Manish Pandey 58)
Assam 297/4 in 48.2 overs (Swarupam Purkayastha 112, Sibsankar Roy 66)
Assam won by 6 wickets.
4. Vidarbha 240 in 47.2 overs (Atharva Taide 51, Kamlsh Nagarkoti 3/49)
Rajasthan 243/4 in 44 .1 overs (Yash Kothari 109, Mahipal Lomror 81)
Rajasthan won by 6 wkts.