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Maharashtra takes on Delhi

Special Correspondent

Nagothane (Maharashtra): Maharashtra is leading the table with 15 points, three more than its nearest competitor Delhi, in the Ranji Trophy Super League.

From Sunday, the home team takes on Delhi at the Reliance Cricket Stadium which will host a four-day first-class and national championship match for the first time. The new ground by the side of the Mumbai-Goa highway and surrounded by greenery has appealed to the teams, but what will remain unclear though, until sufficient cricket is played, is the quality of the pitch. “The ambience and the outfield look good, but what’s important is the pitch. We cannot comment on it because this is going to be the first match. When one rolls the ball, it travels with small bumps,” said Vijay Dahiya, Delhi’s coach.

Hint on semifinalist

While the teams will get some idea about the nature of the pitch in the course of the first day’s play, the outcome of this match would throw light on which team has a real chance of advancing to the semifinals. “There are three teams fighting for the top two spots; Maharashtra, Delhi and Mumbai. But we are not concerned about what the other teams are doing. Each match is important, including Saurashtra. They have improved by every match. We were 20 odd for no loss against Himachal Pradesh, but in seven overs we lost six wickets. We did not get time to realise what hit us. A team has to play its first innings very well,” said Dahiya.

Pradeep Sangwan, the left-arm seamer at the start of the season, has improved by leaps and bounds to lead the Delhi pace bowling. Dahiya said Sangwan had twisted his ankle and hence did not play against Himachal. Maharashtra’s coach Chandrakant Pandit’s unique method of conducting joint practice sessions for the senior and junior teams seems to have paid rich dividends. “This is the first season these players are taking the field as a team. The lower order batsmen (Vishal Bhilare, Kedar Jadhav) are scoring runs and that’s a good sign for the team. Three more matches have to be played and the aim is to play good cricket. Hrishikesh (Kanitkar) is back in the team and the team’s performance revolves around the contribution of each and every player. The openers have not really clicked and that remains an area of concern,” said Pandit.

Heavy dew over the outfield did not escape the attention of the umpires and match referee B. K. Sadashiv. “I have told them to use the super-sopper and rope from 7.30 a.m. on Saturday. It’s noon and even now there is dew,” he said.

The teams (from):

Delhi: Virender Sehwag (captain), Aakash Chopra, Shikhar Dhawan, Ranjat Bhatia, Virat Kohli, Puneer Bisht (wk), Mithun Manhas, Pradeep Sangwan, Amit Bhandari, Chetanya Nanda, Narinder Singh, Mayank Tehlan, Aditya Jain, Parvinder Awana, Gaurav Chabra.

Maharashtra: Venugopala Rao (captain), Harshad Khadiwale, Vishant More, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Yogesh Takawale, Sairaj Bahutule, Vishal Bhilare, Kedar Jadhav, Wahid Sayyeed, Samad Fallah, Salil Agharkar, Ranjit Chavan, Digambhar Waghmare, Ashish Suryavanshi.

Umpires: Sanjeev Rao and S. Lakshmanan.

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