Dharamsala, Dec 2 (UNI) The pace duo of V S Thakur and A.K Malik ripped through Delhi bundling them out a paltry 75 and forced the visitors to follow on after Himachal Pradesh piled up 343 in their first innings on the second day of the four day Ranji Trophy group A tie here today.
Earlier resuming at their overnight score of 228 for 5, the hosts added 115 runs more to their total before being all out.
The Delhi batsmen failed to negotiate a tight spell of bowling by Thakur and Malik who claimed six and four wickets respectively with extras reading the highest score.
Delhi's first innings lasted only 23.3 overs before they were asked again by the Himachal captain Sandeep Sharma to bat again and follow on.
Delhi, in their second essay, looked more determined as Virender Sehwag in particular produced some hard hitting strokes as he quickly raced to 31 off just 19 balls with seven hits to the fence.
Earlier, the Delhi team were immediately on backfoot as Thakur removed both the openers with scoreboard reading 28. Malik too did not give any relief to Delhi as he joined Thakur and sent Akash Chopra, Shikhar Dhawan and Rajat Bhatia back to the pavilion.
Himachal captain did not use the services of other bowlers as Thakur and Malik did a fine job. Only V Bhatia got an over that too the last one of the day in Delhi second innings.
From here, Himachal will look to enforce a win as they take field tomorrow against this star studded Delhi side with still two more days to go and the home team ahead by 230 runs.
Scoreboard: Himachal Pradesh (Ist innings) M Gupta c A.Bhandari b C.Nanda 49 Sandeep Sharma lbw b I.Sharma 09 Mukesh Sharma lbw b C.Nanda 40 A Mannu c P,Bisht b A.Bhandari04 Barun Sharma lbw b C.Nanda 22 P Dogra b C.Nanda 81 M.S Bisla c P.Bisht b P.Awana 50 Sarandeep Singh b A.Chopra 37 V Bhatia b I.Sharma 02 A.K Thakur run out 00 V.S Malik not out 00 Extras (b 8, lb 8, nb 33) 49 Total (in 142.3 overs) 343 all out Fall of wickets1-32,2-103, 3-108,4-151,5-154,6-253,7-338,8-343,9-343 Bowling A Bhandari: 19-7-39-1,I Sharma:32-6-103-2, P.Awana: 22-7-42-1 R Bhatia: 08-3-18-0,C Nanda39.3-15- 74-4,V Sehwag:21-6-50-0 A Chopra: 01-0-01-1 Delhi (1st innings) G Gambhir lbw b A.Thakur 13 V Sehwag b A.Thakur 09 A Chopra c S.Sharma b V.Malik 07 S Dhawan lbw b V.Malik 05 R Bhatia c M.S. Bisla b V.Malik 07 P Bisht c M.S Bisla b A.Thakur 09 M Manhas c S.Sharma b V.Malik 00 C Nanda lbw b A.Thakur 05 A Bhandari not out 04 I Sharma b V.Malik 01 P Awana b V.Malik 00 Extras (lb 5, nb 10) 15 Total ( In 23.3 overs) 75 all out Fall of wickets:1-25,2-28,3-38,4-48,5-51,6-59,7-64,8-74,9-75 Bowling: A.K Thakur:12-0-45-4, V.S Malik:11.3-5-25-6 Delhi (2nd innings) G Gambhir batting 03 V Sehwag batting 31 Extras (lb 2, nb 2) 04 Total ( in 4 overs) 38 for no loss A. Thakur:2-0-20-0, V.S Malik:1-0-10-0 V. Bhatia:1-0-06-0 UNI