INDORE, January 5: Bowlers dominated at the Maharani Usharaje Stadium on Saturday, but largely because the batsmen let them. First, Delhi’s contrasting new ball pair of Amit Bhandari and Sumit Narwal dismissed Baroda cheaply, only to see their star batsmen fritter away the advantage in the blink of an eye, losing the top three wickets with only five on the board.

At close of play on Day One of this crucial Ranji Trophy semifinal, Delhi were 49/3, still 150 behind Baroda’s first innings tally and left largely dependent on Mithun Manhas and Aditya Jain’s ongoing rescue act to pull them out of the mire.

But veteran Bhandari and journeyman Narwal were the stand-out performers with four wickets each. Each had a point to prove in their own different ways, and both were ready to take advantage of Baroda’s inability to apply themselves with the bat and put on fighting partnerships.

Bhandari was itching to make a mark because he can’t take his place in the side for granted anymore. Here, he put up a shrewdly disciplined performance, persisting with the right lengths and making the new ball talk in a dramatic early morning session. In an initial eight-over burst, he bagged three important wickets: Satyajit Parab started the slide, failing to keep a drive down after being offered width; Connor Williams’ attempts at resistance were nipped in the bud by switching to a round-the-wicket line, the angle also taking out Rakesh Solanki. Later in the day, Bhandari was unlucky to miss out on a five-for, sending Sankalp Vohra’s stumps cartwheeling only to see the umpire signal a no-ball.

Baroda could never completely recover from this initial damage, and Narwal bent his back to gobble those Bhandari didn’t. The 25-year-old Narwal has been brought in from the cold in an interesting selection, having played his last First Class game for Haryana three seasons back and largely reduced to plying his trade on the Delhi club scene since. The move paid off nicely here, as he lured Shatrunjay Gaekwad to end a crucial 48-run stand with Baroda wicketkeeper Pinal Shah, and then induced a miscue from the dangerous Yusuf Pathan.

Baroda’s new ball bowlers, Sumit Singh and debutant Salim Veragi, relied more on movement as Delhi’s heavyweights repeatedly played and missed. Gambhir’s failure was enough for the few interested spectators to make a move, and Chopra and Dhawan would like to forget this outing. The pitch, though, isn’t as devious as the scorecard suggests, and is expected to settle down further.