Saini's 3 wickets on final day helps Delhi kick off campaign with 3 points in Group D

In Raipur, Navdeep Saini bowled a brilliant opening spell to give Delhi hope of securing an outright win, but ultimately settled for three points against Chattisgarh in their first group D Ranji Trophy match on Monday.

Seasoned Jonty Sidhu's second career first-class hundred had ensured a slender first innings lead for Delhi, who had scored 357 in their first essay on the third evening itself. This was after Chattisgarh scored 343 batting first.

Starting the final day at 33 for no loss, Chattisgarh reached 179 for 6 in 60 overs when the two captains Amandeep Khare and Himmat Singh decided to shake hands with no outright result possible in a session's play that was left.

For Delhi under new head coach Sarandeep Singh, it can be termed a decent start especially if one looks at how the two previous seasons have panned out.

On the fourth morning, it was a five-over spell by Saini that had rocked Chattisgarh with Aayush Pandey and Eknath Kerkar being dismissed in quick succession. By lunch, Chattisgarh had lost five wickets with less than 100-run lead.

But skipper Khare and Ajay Mandal batted for 17.4 overs adding only 38 runs for the sixth wicket but more importantly consumed enough overs to ensure a solitary point for their team.

Once Saini got Khare trapped leg before with the old ball, Delhi did raise slender vision of victory but Mandal and former Mumbai batter Bhupen Lalwani played out another 9.2 overs as the match petered out towards a draw.

Brief Scores

In Raipur: Chattisgarh 343 and 179/6 .

Points: Delhi 3 Chattisgarh 1.

In Coimbatore: Saurashtra 203 and 94 all out in 40.4 overs .

Tamil Nadu 367. TN won by an innings and 70 runs. Points: TN 7 Saurashtra 0.

In Guwahati: Jharkhand 361 and 74/3 .

Assam 180 and 355 . Points: Jharkhand 3; Assam 1.

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