Ajay Jadeja failed to impress in his comeback match but Delhi did not let the star batsman's flop show affect their fortunes as they posted a huge 478 in their first innings in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'A' tie against Uttar Pradesh on Saturday.
And had it not been for left-arm spinner Praveen Gupta's five-wicket haul, the strong Delhi side could have added many more runs to their total.
In reply, Uttar Pradesh were 19 without loss at the close of second day's play with Rohit Prakash (rpt Prakash) on 16 and Prashant Malviya on 2.
Resuming at their overnight 267 for two, Delhi captain Mithun Manhas and Pradeep Chawla took the score to 324 when Manhas was caught by Prashant Malviya off A W Zaidi.
Manhas made 56, which included ten boundaries, and put on 93 runs for the third wicket stand.
Jadeja, who was slapped a five-year ban by the Cricket Board for his alleged nexus with bookies, had a forgettable comeback to competitive cricket.
The flamboyant all-rounder looked tentative and managed to reach 13 when he was bowled by Gyanendra Pandey.
After Jadeja's dismissal, Delhi lost wickets at regular intervals but a late-order rally saw Sarandeep Singh and Rahul Sanghvi stitch a 58-run stand for the ninth wicket.
Sarandeep was quite impressive with the bat scoring 51 runs with the help of four boundaries and one huge six.
Scoreboard:
Delhi 1st innings:
Salil Oberoi run out 80
Gautam Gambhir c Malviya b Praveen 147
Mithun manhas c Malviya b Zaidi 56
Ajay Jadeja b Gyanendra 13
Rajat Bhatia lbw b Praveen 14
Pradeep Chawla c Malviya b Praveen 41
Vijay Dahiya c Salabh b Praveen 19
Sarandeep Singh not out 51
Amit Bhandari b Salabh 19
Rahul Sanghvi b Zaidi 17
Sanjay Gill b Praveen 3
Extras: (b-6, lb-5, nb-6, w-1) 18
Total: (all out in 171.2 overs) 478
Fall of wickets: 1/231, 2/231, 3/324, 4/348,5/348, 6/375, 7/494, 8/416, 9/474.
Bowling: Zaidi 34-8-98-2, Salabh Srivastava 28-9-100-1, Lalit Verma 22-2-59-0, Praveen Gupta 56.2-14-143-5, Gyanendra Pandey 29-6-58-1, Rizwan Shamshad 1-0-6-0, Jyoti Yadav 1-0-3-0.
Uttar Pradesh 1st Innings:
Rohit Prakash not out 16
P Malviya not out 2
Extras: (b-1) 1
Total: (for no loss in 6 overs ) 19
Bowling: Sanjay Gill 3-0-8-0, Amit Bhandari 2-0-10-0, Sarandeep Singh 1-1-0-0.
