Riding on the devastating spells of Delhi bowlers Abhishek Sharma and Sarandeep Singh, who claimed three wickets each, the hosts tightened their grip over Haryana to sniff victory on the penultimate day of the North Zone Ranji match at Delhi.

Resuming at an overnight score of 288 for seven, Delhi added 39 runs to take a slender first-innings lead. Nitin Aggarwal was Haryana's most successful bowler, taking 4-56, while Amit Mishra claimed 3-82.

After conceding a thin 11-run lead to Delhi, the visitors began their second essay on a weak note as they lost their opener Padamjeet Shehrawat (24) for a score of 41.

Four runs later, Haryana faced two successive jolts when batsmen Ishan Ganda (4) and Parinder Sharma (0) became victims of Abhishek Sharma. Struggling at 45 for three, Chetan Sharma and Shafiq Khan showed their composure and negotiated the bowling well to keep the scoreboard ticking. The pair added 69 runs for the fifth wicket before Sharma was caught by Pradeep Chawla off Amit Bhandari for 35.

Shafiq waged a lone battle as no batsman displayed enough patience to stay at a wicket that was friendly to them. With the scoreboard reading 167 for five, Shafiq was caught by Akash Chopra off Abhishek Sharma. He made the highest score of the innings, 71, with the help of 11 hits to the fence and one six.

In a span of 13 runs, the visiting team lost three batsmen, all trapped leg- before by Sarandeep Singh. Abhishek Sharma returned figures of 3-31 while Sarandeep claimed 3-57.

At the close of play, Haryana were struggling on 180 for eight in their second innings, with Ajay Ratra and Gaurav Vashisht unbeaten on 30 and two respectively.

© CricInfo