Mandi: Forced to follow on, Himachal Pradesh were struggling at 215 for four in their second innings, still needing 115 runs to avoid an innnings defeat in the four day North Zone Ranji Trophy tie against Delhi on the penultimate day at the Shaheed Krishan Chand memorial stadium here on Monday.

Resuming at their overnight score of 148 for five, Himachal lost the sixth wicket, that of Jaswant Rai (70) with the total on 203. Yashwinder Singh (53) and Jaswant Rai added 148 runs for the sixth wicket. Rai hit 12 boundaries while facing 115 balls. After his departure the remaining four wickets fell for the addition of only 41 runs. Sandeep Angurala was the most successful bowler claiming four wickets for 80 runs. Robin Singh junior and off spinner Sunil Joshi captured two wickets each giving away 50 and 40 runs respectively. Himachal's first innings folded up at 244.

In the follow on the hosts started badly as they were two down for 27. But by close of play they had recovered to score 215 for four. Skipper Rajiv Nayyar (42) and Yashwinder Singh (40) played good knocks to give their team a chance of avoiding an innings defeat. Nischal Gaur (53*) and Sangram Singh (55*) played with responsibility and added 106 runs for the unfinished fifth wicket. Sunil Joshi and Robin Singh bagged two wickets each for 22 and 36 runs respectively.