Sehwag strikes first 50 this Ranji season

Virender Sehwag struck his first 50 of the season and Mithun Manhas a fine century to help Delhi amass a 360-run lead against Vidarbha on day two of the Group A Ranji Trophy match at the Roshanara Ground here Sunday.

Sehwag, batting in the middle order, took 72 balls for his 56 before Rahul Yadav (81) and Ashish Nehra (57) took Delhi to 448 for nine in 138.5 overs. Vidarbha were up against tough luck after folding up for 88 in controversial circumstances on the opening day when the game was stopped for 28 minutes after complaints of a sub-standard surface.

Sehwag, who has struggled to get going so far in the season, would welcome some runs from his bat.

Nehra too impressed with the bat after his six-wicket haul Saturday.

In Hubli, Manish Pandey (161) and opener Lokesh Rahul (92) put Karnataka in command as the hosts ended the second day on 367 for seven in reply to Punjab's first innings tally of 174.

Pandey and Rahul added 149 runs for the third wicket to ensure first innings lead for Karnataka, who were 59 for two overnight. With a lead of 193 runs, the hosts are well poised to force victory over the next two days.

After Rahul's departure, Pandey held the innings together and was involved in crucial partnerships with the latter order batsmen as Karnataka took command.

Pandey added 52 runs for the fifth wicket with Stuart Binny (19), 68 for the sixth with Karun Nair (21) and a further 35 for the seventh with skipper Vinay Kumar (29 not out) before being dismissed.

Punjab toiled through the day for little rewards as seamer Manpreet Singh Dhony added one more wicket to the two he had taken Friday while off-spinner Gurkeerat Singh Mann came away with two.

Brief scores:

Group A

Odisha 79 for 3 v Mumbai 501 for 9 dec (Jaffer 143, Hiken 170).

Karnataka 367 for 7 (Rahul 92, Pandey 161) v Punjab 174 (Vohra 69).

Gujarat 27 for 1 v Haryana 573 for 6 dec (Sunny 201, Rana 102, Saini 106).

Delhi 448 for 9 (Gambhir 49, Sehwag 56, Manhas 100, Nehra 57) v Vidarbha 88 (Nehra 6-16).

Group B

Saurashtra 49 for 0 v Madhya Pradesh 619 for 8 dec (Saxena 194, Ojha 154, Mishra 113 not out).

Uttar Pradesh 212 and 50 for 3 v Bengal 284 (Shukla 117, RP 5-77).

Railways 152 for 8 v Tamil Nadu 246 (Aparajith 29, Prasanna 117).

Services 191 (Munaf 4-38) and 2 for 1 v Baroda 369 (Mistry 118, Irfan 22).

Group C, at stumps

Goa 9 for 0 v Hyderabad 514 for 6 dec (Vihari 201 not out).

Kerala 151 (Samson 18) and 23 for 0 v Maharashtra 314 (Khadiwale 97).

Himachal 24 for 3 v Andhra 417 (Prashant 199, Dhawan 5-115).

Jammu and Kashmir 294 for 5 (I.R. Singh 94 not out) Assam 263 (Sharma 108).