Retiring Gambhir 92* on Day 2
RANJI TROPHY: ROUND 5; DAY 2
NEW DELHI: With a small group of fans and his family — wife and daughters, egging him on from the sidelines and an artist outside the boundary rope painting his knock on the canvas, Gautam Gambhir turned on his vintage self in his farewell game as he made an unbeaten 92 to help Delhi move to 190 for one in reply to Andhra’s 390 in first innings at the end of the second day’s play on Friday.
The former India captain and opener, who looks set to get his 43rd first-class century on Saturday morning, started in blistering fashion, like in the previous innings here, with the pressure of future out of his way.
He timed a couple of boundaries towards the leg-side and unleashed one through covers, moving to 24 off just 17 deliveries.
The left-hander then struggled a bit against the spinners, getting dropped on a couple of occasions, but made the most of the chances to take his side towards a position of strength from where they can control this game.
Together with Hiten Dalal (58), Gambhir added 108 for the first wicket and then continued the flow in the company of Dhruv Shorey, who was unbeaten on 39. Towards the end as he neared his century, Gambhir again brought about a couple of boundaries with every shot of his, even a single, being cheered on. Earlier, former India U-19 player Ricky Bhui’s 187 and some valuable contributions from the lower order took Andhra to 390 in the first innings.
TN EDGE AHEAD
PTI adds from Chennai: Tamil Nadu gained the upper hand on 235/7 in 70 overs (Pratyush Singh 76, Mura Singh 43*)
Porvorim: Services 184 vs Goa 259/9 in 100 overs (D Misal 101*, L Garg 50, S Pandey 4/59, D Pathania 4/74)
Jammu: J&K 290 & 98/7 in 40.2 overs (S Kumar 5/21) vs Uttar Pradesh 188 all out in 57.2 overs (Rinku Singh 66, P Rasool 4/47) Ranchi: Jharkhand 172 & 107/3 in 41 overs (R Mohanty 2/35) vs Odisha 201 all out in 55.4 overs (S Pradhan 54, V Aaron 2/51)
Jaipur: Assam 108 & 109/3 in 30 overs (G Sharma 64) vs Rajasthan 325 all out in 111.2 overs (M Lomror 133, S Khan 71, R Mali 5/62)