Himmat helps Delhi rally
NEW DELHI: Despite their success against champions Vidarbha in the previous home game, batting has been a struggle for Delhi this Ranji Trophy season. It was wasn’t very different on the first day of the Elite Group A match against Gujarat at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground on Tuesday.
Himmat Singh, recalled from the U-23 level, and Kunwar Bidhuri (78 batting) raised 134 for the sixth wicket to help Delhi reach 270 for six at stumps. Opener Hiten Dalal made 69 but when he was the fifth batsman out, Delhi were staring down the barrel against a team placed at No. 2 in the points table.
Himmat, who was out for 56 in the last over of the day, had been marked out for greater things a couple of seasons ago when Delhi reached the final, even making it to India A. However, an inability to convert starts and inconsistency pushed him out of the side as Delhi tried new faces, some without merit.
Himmat, who played well, now has five fifties but no hundred. His failure to convert again is symptomatic of the problem
Delhi face—there is almost no one who can play a big knock. Chief coach KP Bhaskar was exasperated at the end of the day’s play. “I made a mistake, chasing a wide one,” said Himmat, who mostly bats down the order where he doesn’t get much chance to build a big innings. “We are hoping to get to 350,” he said. Nitish Rana, hero of that win over Vidarbha, and Dhruv Shorey fell early when the wicket was fresh as Gujarat bowlers stuck to a tight line after putting Delhi into bat.
Left-arm seamer Arzan Nagwaswalla, who took three wickets including those of Rana and Shorey, moved the ball to trouble the batsmen. Seamer Roosh Kalaria took two wickets. Leftarm spinner Axar Patel came into play after lunch and scalped Himmat. Delhi’s bowling is weak, and though Gujarat don’t have Parthiv Patel—he is attending a family wedding—they might have to work hard. A lot will depend on young left-arm pace bowler Siddhant Sharma, who is making his debut.
JAFFER REACHES 12,000 At Nagpur, domestic stalwart Wasim Jaffer extended his Ranji record by completing 12,000 runs while scoring 57 against Kerala. Jaffer, who played 31 Tests, and most of his domestic cricket for Mumbai before moving to Vidarbha, steadied the batting with Ganesh Satish (58) as they ended at 239/6 at stumps.
24 WICKETS IN A DAY
In Patiala, Punjab and Andhra batsmen competed with each other as 24 wickets tumbled on Day 1 of their Elite Group A game. Table-toppers Andhra, electing to bat, were routed for 97 with pacer Siddarth Kaur taking 5/24. In reply, Punjab were skittled out for 108 in 35.2 overs, spinners Shoaib Md Khan (5/46) and S Ashish (5/50) sharing the wickets. Andhra were 31/4 in their second innings at stumps, leftarm spinner Vinay Choudhary taking three wickets to go with his first-innings treble.
SARFRAZ SLAMS 78
At Rajkot, Sarfaraz Khan hit 78 to rescue Mumbai to 249/8 at stumps against Saurashtra. After unbeaten knocks of 301 and 226 in the last two games, he became only the fifth batsman to amass 600 runs (605) before being dismissed.