Nitish, Milind anchor chase as Delhi beat UP by 4 wkts

Nitish Rana's fluent 67 and a patient unbeaten 48 from vice-captain Milind Kumar saw Delhi chase down a tricky target of 252 on the final day against Uttar Pradesh in their Ranji Group A encounter.

New Delhi: Nitish Rana's fluent 67 and a patient unbeaten 48 from vice-captain Milind Kumar saw Delhi chase down a tricky target of 252 on the final day against Uttar Pradesh in their Ranji Group A encounter.

Delhi with 16 points from 3 games are now second in the group behind leaders Karnataka with 20 from equal number of games.

Starting the day at 224 for 7, UP lasted only 4.5 overs as Navdeep Saini (4/46) polished off the remaining three wickets with visitors second innings ending at 229.

With a minimum of 83 overs to reach the target, Delhi knocked off the runs in 72.1 overs with minimum fuss.

Unmukt Chand (49, 100 balls) and first innings hero Dhruv Shorey (32) added 53 for the second wicket after Gautam Gambhir's early departure.

But it was the partnership between Chand and Nitish Rana that yielded 71 runs for the third wicket before the former was dismissed in  the 36th over.

He was one short of his first 50 of the season.

Rana, who hit 8 boundaries and a six added another 52 runs with Milind, who was a picture of concentration during his undefeated 109 ball knock.

Once Rana was out in the 55th over, Rishabh Pant (26) hit a quickfire 26 off 34 balls to take the team closer before Navdeep Saini smashed three fours and a six in 12 balls to close the match.

Brief Scores Group A

In Delhi (At Palam): UP 291 and 229 (Akshdeep Nath 110, Navdeep Saini 4/46, Ishant Sharma 3/38). Delhi 269 and (target 252) 256/6 (Nitish Rana 67, Milind Kumar 48 no). Delhi won by 4 wickets. Points: Delhi 6, UP 0.

 

In Delhi (At Karnail Singh Stadium):

Hyderabad 474/9 and (Target) 23 for no loss vs Railways 246 and 250 (f/0) (Manish Rao 85, Mehdi Hassan 4/35). Points: Hyderabad 7; Railways 0.

 

In Pune: Maharashtra 245 and 247 (Ruturaj Gaikwad 65, Abhimanyu Mithun 5/66) vs Karnataka 628/5 decl. Points: Maharashtra 0; Karnataka 7