Sanat Sangwan scored a brilliant hundred for Delhi on the first day of their last league match of the Elite Ranji Trophy Group D match against hosts Mumbai. However, the visitors were shot out for 221 courtesy Mohit Avasthi's (5/62) five-wicket haul at MCA's BKC ground on Thursday.
Sangwan struck 118 in 218 balls with 12 boundaries and two sixes before he was caught by Tushar Despande off Shams Mulani (2/45). Mumbai were 13/1 in reply, with Divij Mehra removing Akash Anand (4).
The 25-year-old left-handed stylish batter stood firm in the morning session after Despande (2/36) removed opener Dhruv Kaushik early. Sangwan took responsibility for scoring major runs and marched ahead along with Vaibhav Kandpal to take Delhi to 101/1 at lunch. He didn't mind playing a lot of dot balls and bringing out aggression to dispatch loose deliveries.
Mulani ended the 100-run stand for the second wicket after lunch by dismissing Kandpal (32). Avasthi later took over by sneaking three quick wickets to reduce visitors to 152/5 from a comfortable 146/2. Avasthi's third spell read figures of 3 for 17 in six overs. Pranav Rajvanshi, in the company of Sangwan, ensured no further inroads till tea as Delhi were 172 for 5 in 56 overs. Sangwan, unbeaten on 102, carried on in the evening session. Himanshu Singh started the proceedings after tea, and Mulani from the other end, but neither could find a breakthrough. Sangwan finally had a lapse in concentration as he holed out.
"It's been a good season for me. I wanted to play long innings. The Delhi-Mumbai contest is always a tight match, so I will call it one of my best hundreds," Sangwan told the media after scoring his third First Class ton of the season.
Avasthi returned later to wrap up Delhi's innings and complete a five-for. The pace bowler, who is making a comeback after a ligament tear, settled into a good rhythm after lunch and continued it in the evening session.
Brief scores:
In Mumbai: Delhi 221 in 76.4 overs (Sanat Sangwan 118; Mohit Avasthi 5/62) lead Mumbai 13/1 in 3 overs (Akhil Herwadkar 4 not out; Divij Mehra 1/4) by 208 runs.
In Hyderabad: Chhattisgarh 283 in 72.3 overs (Vikalp Tiwary 94, Prateek Yadav 106; Mohammed Siraj 4/56) lead Hyderabad 56/0 in 15 overs (Aman Rao 32 not out, Abhirath Reddy 23 not out) by 227 runs.
In Puducherry: Rajasthan 168 in 61.1 overs (Deepak Choudhary 64; Sagar Udeshi 3/54, Karan Kannan 5/37) lead Puducherry 77/2 in 28 overs (Neyan Kangayan 41 not out; Deepak Choudhary 1/14) by 91 runs.
In Nadaun, Himachal Pradesh, 168 in 60.1 overs (Pukhraj Mann 77; Sunil Kumar 5/55) lead Jammu and Kashmir 20 no loss by 148 runs.
Mumbai players forced to wear face masks
Mumbai's players were forced to put on face masks to protect themselves from pollution caused by building construction activity around the BKC ground. Sarfaraz Khan, his younger brother Musheer Khan, and spinner Himanshu Singh were seen wearing face masks during the third session's play.
