New Delhi: On a day when fans flocked to the Arun Jaitley Stadium in large numbers to catch a glimpse of their hometown stalwart Virat Kohli on his return to domestic cricket, wicketkeeper-batter Upendra Yadav bagged accolades by making a superb 95 on Day One of the Ranji Trophy match on Thursday.
With selector Ajay Ratra in attendance, Upendra was in command on a greenish-looking pitch by being solid in defence and showing judiciousness in his shot selection to make a fabulous 95 off 177 balls, laced with ten fours and a six. He stitched partnerships of 104 with Karn Sharma, who made a 106-ball fifty, and 59 with Himanshu Sangwan, who made a handy 29, to help Railways make 241 in 67.4 overs. For Delhi, pacer Navdeep Saini and spinner Sumit Mathur took three scalps each, while fast bowlers Siddhant Sharma and Money Grewal picked two wickets each.
At the close of the day’s play, Delhi reached 41/1 in 10 overs and trail Railways by 200 runs, with Yash Dhull and Sanat Sangwan unbeaten on 17 and nine respectively. Electing to bowl first on a green pitch, Delhi struck in the second over as Siddhant Sharma got one to come back in sharply and trapped Anchit Yadav lbw.
The left-arm pacer then extracted a top edge off Suraj Ahuja’s pull against a short ball and was caught at mid-wicket, with the third umpire confirming it wasn’t a case of a no-ball. Navdeep Saini got the crowd roaring when he came in from around the wicket and sent Vivek Singh’s off-stump cartwheeling, as the left-hander fell for a 14-ball duck.
Amidst this, an eager fan ran in from the North Stand to touch Kohli’s feet in the 12th over and was taken away by the security personnel. Kohli, standing at the second slip, gestured to the security people to not hit the fan. Money Grewal extracted an outside edge off Mohammad Saif’s to the slip cordon, but the third umpire called it a no-ball as the pacer had overstepped.
But Grewal struck twice in the 20th over by having Saif caught behind by keeper Pranav Rajvanshi, before trapping Bhargav Merai lbw for a golden duck, as Railways were reduced to 66/5. Seeing that, the crowd was buzzing as they sensed a chance of Delhi’s batting innings starting quickly and seeing Kohli in action with his bat.
But Upendra, who’s been in the India A set-up, and Karn, who spent time in the Indian team and IPL dressing rooms, hung around to take Railways to 87/5 at lunch. With batting becoming slightly easy in the afternoon session, Upendra and Karn showed application and willingness to stay for long and defy Delhi’s phenomenal fast bowlers.
Upendra, solid in defence and measured in his strokeplay, went on to bring up his half-century and didn’t even raise his bat in acknowledgement of the fifty, with the realisation dawning on him that the job wasn’t done yet.
On the other hand, Karn used his wrists well to play with the turn against Delhi’s spinners and brought up his fifty off 104 balls with a well-middled six over fine-leg off Saini. In a bid to get another maximum, Karn went for a big shot but fell to a brilliant relay catch by Yash Dhull in the deep. Kohli was the first person to appreciate Dhull for his great catch, and that led to a huge cheer from the crowd who began chanting “Kohli, Kohli” for the umpteenth time in the day.
One brought two for Saini as Ayan Chaudhari was caught out for a golden duck, and was followed by Himanshu Sangwan surviving the hat-trick ball, as Railways reached 182/7 at tea.
In the final session, Upendra went for the attack while mixing strike rotation. On the other side, Sangwan showed his batting skills by smacking Shivam Sharma for back-to-back sixes. Upendra was primed to get a century but was caught five runs away from it as he danced down the pitch to smack Sumit over long-off, but holed out in the deep for 95.
Sumit wrapped up Railways’ innings by dismissing Sangwan for 29, before castling Rahul Sharma for a duck to end Railways’ innings in 67.4 overs. With 40 minutes left in the day, opener Arpit Rana fell for 10 after edging behind to the keeper off Kunal Yadav. Dhull and Sangwan ensured there was no further damage for Delhi till the stumps arrived on a day when Kohli was the main attraction for fans.
Brief scores:
Railways 241 all out in 67.4 overs (Upendra Yadav 95, Karn Sharma 50; Sumit Mathur 3-20, Navdeep Saini 3-62) lead Delhi 41/1 in 10 overs (Yash Dhull 17 not out; Kunal Yadav 1-28) by 200 runs
(IANS)
