Chandigarh, Nov 8 (PTI) Delhi batters, barring opener Sanat Sangwan and young Yash Dhull, continued with their no-show as Chandigarh's young left-arm spinner Nishunk Birla grabbed his second six-wicket haul of the match to put the hosts on the cusp of victory in their Ranji Trophy game here on Friday.
Having scored 276 in the first innings, Delhi fared worse in the second essay by getting bowled out for 250, with only first-innings centurion Dhull's 58 and opener Sangwan's 70 being the significant contributions.
On a track that offered turn and bounce, Birla took 6 for 65 in 27.1 overs and had a match haul 12 for 138 to set up an easy victory target of 203 for Chandigarh, who were 46 for no loss at stumps on the third day.
A lot will depend on how Delhi's spin troika of Hrithik Shokeen, Shivank Vashist and Sumit Mathur perform on the final day as Chandigarh would look to get six points and consolidate their position on top of the table with a possible 19 points.
Having conceded a 48-run first-innings lead, Delhi were cruising along at 138 for 1 at one point in time with Sangwan and Dhull adding 96 for the second wicket. Once Gurinder got rid of Dhull and Sangwan, who hit seven fours, Birla ran through the middle and lower-order.
Anuj Rawat (20) and Ayush Badoni (1), who are more focussed on IPL and T20 cricket, were big-time flops and so was skipper Himmat Singh (26), who hasn't played a match-winning innings in a long time. Not much was expected of Khsitiz Sharma (11) either.
It was Shokeen, whose four towering sixes in a knock of 33, saw Delhi set a 200-plus target for Chandigarh.
Brief Scores
In Chandigarh: Delhi 276 and 250 (Sanat Sangwan 70, Yash Dhull 58, Nishunk Birla 6/65).
Chandigarh 324 and (target 203) 2nd Innings 46 for no loss.
In Guwahati: Tamil Nadu 338 and 2nd Innings 8/0.
Assam Ist Innings 445 (Denish Das 109, SS Roy 69, Swarupam Purkayastha 90, PR Paul 3/45)
In Raipur: Chattisgarh 500 for 9 declared.
Railways 1st Innings 323/3 (Suraj Ahuja 135 batting, B Vivek Singh 86, Upendra Yadav 41 batting).
In Ranchi: Jharkhand 306 and 2nd Innings 74/1.
Saurashtra 1st Innings 386 (Harvik Desai 155, Arpit Vasavada 73, Vikas Kumar 3/74, Manishi 3/75).