Delhi, Dec 10: chances of pulling off an outright win slumped when they were set a challenging 410 going into the final day in Bangalore. The loss of three quick wickets late in the evening has all but ruled out their pursuit for a victory, said their coach Vijay Dahiya. In the event of a draw, Delhi have the cushion of the first-innings lead which will give them three points.
"No (thoughts of a win). To be honest, looking at the situation right now we have to take it session by session," Dahiya said. "We have the first-innings lead. If it stops right here, we have three points."
On the second day, Delhi had struggled to dislodge the Karnataka opening pair of Robin Uthappa and KL Rahul, who extended their overnight stand to 140, setting the foundation for a healthy lead. Delhi had their moments in the opening session when they picked three wickets for no runs, including the openers. Karnataka were struggling at 167 for 4 at one stage but a partnership of 145 between Stuart Binny and Manish Pandey had handed the initiative back to Karnataka. Delhi failed to recover from that setback, and Dahiya admitted that his side had to take responsibility for letting things slip at a crucial stage. "We definitely missed a trick. We should have at least stopped the flow of runs," Dahiya said. "They had a good partnership but mind you one of them (Pandey) didn't look in good flow. We couldn't check them, and their partnership was a big part of the game. If we had picked another wicket there, we would have put big pressure."
|
