A century partnership between former India international Amay Khurasia and Devendra Bundela helped Madhya Pradesh take the initiative away from Delhi in the Ranji Trophy Elite 'A' cricket league match in New Delhi on Sunday.
The visitors were comfortably placed at 207 for four in their first innings with Bundela batting on 63 accompanied by Nikhil Patwardan on 14 at close on the second day at the Jamia Millia Islamia university grounds.
Madhya Pradesh needed another 23 runs to overhaul Delhi's 239 for nine declared after the hosts were reduced to ten men following an ankle injury to seamer Sanjay Gill.
The loss of Gill, who suffered the injury during warming up this morning, would be a crushing blow to Delhi's hopes of clinching an outright win as the right arm fast bowler was the wrecker-in-chief in the previous two matches.
Gill's absence told as Madhya Pradesh, despite being reduced to 56 for two, ran away with Khurasia and Bundela toying with the hapless Delhi attack.
Delhi did not help their cause when Akash Chopra dropped Khurasia on 20 at first slip off Ajay Jadeja.
Resuming at 212 for seven, Delhi's first innings came to an end 40 minutes into the day's play.
Scorecard
Delhi 1st innings:
A Chopra lbw b Pandey 37
S Dhawan c Sachin Dholpure b Sunil Dholpure 29
R Bhatia c Abbas Ali b Sunil Dholpure 0
M Manhas c Ojha b Sunil Dholpure 26
A Bali lbw b Sunil Dholpure 0
A Jadeja c Abbas Ali b Pandey 26
V Dahiya c Sunil M Dholpure b Likhar 32
Sarandeep Singh c Khurasiya b Pandey 37
RL Sanghvi not out 11
A Bhandari c Likhar b Pandey 11
Extras: (b-4, lb-7, nb-19) 30
Total: (for 9 wkts decl. in 95.4 overs) 239
Fall of Wickets: 1-46, 2-50, 3-96, 4-96, 5-104, 6-155, 7-193, 8-223, 9-239.
Bowling: Sanjay Pandey 25.4-6-83-4, Sunil Dholpure 24-8-63-4, Devendra Bundela 20-6-27-0, Jitendra Likhar 10-2-15-1, Narendra Hirwani 16-3-40-0.
Madhya Pradesh 1st innings:
Sachin Dholpure c Manhas b Bhatia 28
N Ojha lbw b Bhandari 25
A Khurasiya lbw b Jadeja 61
D Bundela batting 63
S Abbas Ali c Jadeja b Sanghvi 4
N Patwardhan batting 14
Extras: (b-3, nb-9) 12
Total: (for 4 wickets in 75 overs) 207
Fall of Wickets: 1-56, 2-56, 3-171, 4-178.
Bowling: Bhandari 18-5-56-1, Bhatia 15-7-25-1, Jadeja 12-3-25-1, Sanghvi 16-2-41-1,Sarandeep Singh 13-1-53-0, Bali 1-0-4-0.
