Delhi favourites against MP in Ranji quarter-finals
MULAPADU: Former champions Delhi will fancy their chances when they take on Madhya Pradesh in their quarter-final match of the Ranji Trophy cricket tournament beginning here on Thursday.
Delhi remained unbeaten in the group phase and qualified for the quarter-finals as the runner-up side from Group A with 27 points from three wins and three draws.
They narrowly missed out on a win under controversial circumstances in their season opener against Assam but then went on to pick up three victories, two of them with bonus points.
After Gautam Gambhir refused to take up the captain’s mantle, pacer Ishant Sharma was handed the job and he performed his role quite admirably, leading from the front and helping Delhi pick up 20 wickets in all four matches he skippered. That made a big difference in the team’s performance.
Young wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant took the captain’s role after Ishant was called for national duty.
Though Pant is yet to produce the kind of match-winning performances that is expected of him, Delhi have been doing well in the batting front.
Gambhir has been in good touch at the top of the order, notching up two centuries and falling narrowly short of a third. Delhi’s batting has been built around the veteran opener, with youngsters such as Nitish Rana too scoring the bulk of runs.
The prolific Rana is the topscorer this season with 466 runs, which include two centuries.
MUMBAI TO PLAY KARNATAKA
NAGPUR: Mumbai will lock horns with Karnataka in what promises to be a no-holds-barred Ranji quarter-final between two battle-hardened teams.
Mumbai drubbed Tripura at the Wankhede Stadium in what was a must-win game for the 41-time Ranji Trophy champions to gather some timely momentum after a sluggish earlier phase. The Mumbai opening pair of in-form young batsman Prithvi Shaw, who has hit three hundreds and two fifties in his debut season, and Jay Bista, who scored a hundred in the last game, will need to be at their best to negotiate the incisive Karnataka attack.