press Trust of India
Having already pocketed three of their four matches, Delhi will be looking to consolidate their pole position if the weather in the national capital holds up in the four-day encounter at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium here. Delhi have 23 points from their four games while Orissa have only eight and are lying seventh in the nine-team Group B table.
If Gambhir started the side’s opener with a belligerent 147 against Saurashtra in early December then Sehwag started the New Year with a blazing hundred against Haryana at Lahli.
Having been snubbed by the national selectors after being omitted from even the 30-member squad that was picked for the World Cup, the veteran batsmen have taken to domestic season with purpose.
Sehwag has scored two centuries while Gambhir and Unmukt Chand have managed one each to make the side’s batting look unbeatable.
Even the bowling, led by Sumit Narwal and Parwinder Awana, has looked lethal in favourable conditions. The young medium-pacer from Karnal, Navdeep Saini, has also made his presence felt with great support from Rajat Bhatia and left-arm spinner Varun Sood.
Orissa, on the other hand, have struggled in the four matches gone by, collecting only one win. The Abhilash Mallick-led side has a lot of catching up to do in trying to climb up the ladder.
If the batting has lacked enough punch then the bowling, led by the experienced Basant Mohanty, hasn’t provided the necessary breakthroughs when needed.
So the likes of Biplab Samantray, Natraj Behera, Aravind Singh and Abhilash himself will have to come to the party if Orissa are to put up a challenge against the hosts.
Group B points table
Team M W D L Points
Delhi 4 3 1 o 23
Punjab 5 2 2 1 18
Gujarat 4 1 2 1 12
Rajasthan 5 1 3 1 11
Maharashtra 4 1 1 2 10
Haryana 5 1 2 2 10
Orissa 4 1 2 1 8
Vidarbha 4 0 0 4 8
Saurashtra 5 0 3 2 3