Chinks in Delhi armour exposed against Baroda
Thursday was a bad day for Delhi cricket. The senior team lost their T20 zonal match to Punjab by five runs, the under-22 team was run over by Vadodara pacer Ajitesh Argal and the under-19 team lost to Punjab by ten wickets.
Thursday was a bad day for Delhi cricket. The senior team lost their T20 zonal match to Punjab by five runs, the under-22 team was run over by Vadodara pacer Ajitesh Argal and the under-19 team lost to Punjab by ten wickets.
Friday wasn’t any better.
Amid claims of being the best team and the selection being fair, the performance of the under-22 team has raised many questions.
Consider this:
No batsman in the 15-member squad has scored a century in the DDCA league, which, apparently, is the criterion for selection to state teams.
Saurav Passi, who has five centuries (two in hot weather, one in Lala Raghubir and two in the DDCA league) in the last month-and-a-half, is warming the bench.
While chasing 445 against Vadodara, Delhi are 113 for two. Tapan Jain (31) opened the second innings with captain Rahul Yadav (44 n.o.) because Abhishek Kapoor injured his wrist.
A win looks impossible and the maximum Delhi can retrieve is a draw.
On the third day, Delhi’s chinks were exposed again, this time by the opposition batsmen.
Starting from their overnight 116 for no loss, Baroda piled on 308 for 7, taking an overall lead of 454 before declaring.
The Delhi bowlers, quite like their batsmen, were ineffective and couldn’t exploit the home conditions. Karan Harit, in particular, was woeful, giving away 42 runs in his nine overs, including ten wides. Barring Vishu Tomar (2-72) and Vartik Tihara (2-33), no other bowler troubled the batsmen.
For Baroda, Anupam Gupta (55), Kedar Devdhar (75) and Mattrik Shah (69) were among the runs.
Jharkhand almost through to KOs
Dhanbad: Jharkhand on Friday almost ensured a berth in the knockout stage of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy by winning their third straight match in the east zone leg of the T20 tournament.
Brief Scores: Assam 138/4 (Dhiraj Jadav 69 n.o) vs Jharkhand 139/3 (Ramiz Nemat 62 n.o., Saurabh Tiwary 46). Jharkhand won by 7 wkts.
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