Dharamsala: Heavyweights Delhi are in serious trouble of getting eliminated at the group league stage after Himachal Pradesh beat Gautam Gambhir-led team by 13 runs in a north zone leg of the Vijay Hazare one day championship here on Monday.
Delhi now have lost two out of their three zonal matches having lost the opening round game against Jammu and Kashmir before winning against Punjab in the next game.
Delhi are in sight of getting eliminated of the National One Day Championships for the second season in a row having failed to cross the initial hurdle during last edition also. Batting first, Delhi scored 244 for six in 50 overs with opener Raghav Dhawan scoring 89 off 120 balls with nine fours and two sixes. Ashish Nehra was clobbered for 68 runs from 10 overs.
In reply, Gambhir (23), Sehwag (11) continued their poor form with the bat as Delhi were all-out for 231 in 50 overs with Raghav picking up three for 47. India A player Rishi Dhawan and former IPL player Vikramjit Malik got two wickets apiece.
While Gambhir was caught by Sumeet Verma off Raghav's bowling, Sehwag, who again dropped himself down to No 3 could manage only 11 before being run-out by Verma.
The saving grace for Delhi was Milind Kumar, who manged 69 off 94 balls with five boundaries and a six. However, Milind batted a tad too slow and it was left to Rajat Bhatia (run-a-ball 34) to prop up the scoring. He did that for some time before he was cleaned up by medium pacer Pankaj Jaiswal.
Brief Score: Himachal Pradesh 244/6 (R Dhawan 89; Ashish Nehra 1/68) beat Delhi 231 in 50 overs (M Kumar 69, G Gambhir 23, V Sehwag 11) by 13 runs
