There was only one team that looked equipped to bag an outright win on the Motibaug wicket, and Delhi, surprisingly, seemed to settle for an anti-climax despite dominating proceedings for the second day running in their Ranji Trophy Elite group opener against Baroda. With the visitors extending their first innings total to 591 after batting for almost two full days, the contest has been reduced to a fight for the first-innings lead. Baroda were left with nine overs to see off on Day Two, which Connor Williams and Satyajit Parab saw off with relative ease, reaching 21 for no loss.

Shikhar Dhawan grabbed spotlight for the second consecutive day with his maiden double hundred, though some of the attention fell on Rajesh Pawar as well, for the wrong reasons. The left-arm spinner became the second Baroda bowler to be called for chucking, when his fourth delivery of the day was deemed illegal by umpire Vishwas Narulkar. Pawar was on the list of bowlers with suspect actions last season as well, and didn’t bowl after completing his 22nd over. Salim Veragi, who had been called twice on the opening day, wasn’t pressed into operation after the BCCI made a late change in the rulebook, which keeps a bowler out of action for the rest of the match if called for a third time.

As for the cricket itself, little seemed to have changed overnight: the Baroda bowlers failed to create openings after dismissing Rajat Bhatia fell in the third over of the day, while the fielders continued to drop catches.

... contd.