Seamers Amit Bhandari and Sanjay Gill produced impeccable spells to help Delhi and snatch a vital 15-run first innings lead in the Ranji Trophy Elite 'A' cricket league match in New Delhi on Saturday.

Bhandari and Gill scalped three wickets each to shut out Railways for 201 on the penultimate day of the four-day match at the Jamia Millia Islamia university ground.

At close, the hosts had consolidated the advantage and were placed at 101 for one with Shikhar Dhawan on 55 and Rajat Bhatia on 14 at the crease.

Test opener Akash Chopra was the batsman to be dismissed for a well paced 31.

Resuming at 147 for five and needing 70 more to overhaul Delhi's total of 216, Railways were setback when they lost the experienced Yere Goud in the first over of the day to Gill.

Gill, who picked eight wickets in the previous match against Andhra, then removed dangerous Harvinder Singh (9) when he had him caught behind for final figures of 3-48.

In between Bhandari had leg before Andhra import Shankara Rao (5) before rapping wicketkeeper batsman Sudhir Wankhede (4) to reduce the 'visitors' to 181 for 9.

Siddharth Verma, who had resumed at his overnight 16 and watched wickets fall at the other end, then added 20 runs for the last wicket with Kulamani Parida (7) before the latter was run out.

Verma remained unbeaten on 44 from 138 balls after a near four-hour stay at the crease.

Scorecard

Delhi (1st innings): 216

Railways (1st innings):
A Pagnis run out 49
S Bangar c Bali b Gill 0
T P Singh c and b Sanghvi 23
R Ali c and b Sanghvi 16
S Verma not out 44
J P Yadav LBW b Bhandari 23
Y Goud b Gill 8
Shankara Rao LBW b Bhandari 5
Harvinder Singh c Kumar b Gill 9
S Wankhede LBW b Bhandari 4
K Parida run out 7

Extras: (lb-1 nb-7, penalty-5) 13

Total: (all out in 84.3 overs) 201

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-67, 3-94, 4-99, 5-126, 6-148, 7-165, 8-176, 9-181.

Bowling: Amit Bhandari 23-3-55-3, Sanjay Gill 25-11-48-3, Sarandeep Singh 16-2-47-0, Rahul Sanghvi 16.3-3-37-2, Rajat Bhatia 4-2-8-0.

Delhi (2nd innings):
A Chopra LBW b Parida 31
S Dhawan batting 55
R Bhatia batting 14

Extras: (lb-1) 1

Total: (for 1 wkt, 52.5 overs) 101

Fall of wickets: 1-73

Bowling: Harvinder Singh 4-1-8-0, J P Yadav 7-4-6-0, G, Shankara Rao 17.5-7-33-0, Sanjay Bangar 8-3-25-0, Kulamani Parida 156-5-24-1, Tejinder Pal Singh 1-0-4-0.