Bhatia's unbeaten ton guides Delhi to victory over J&K
Skipper Rajat Bhatia led from the front with a superb all-round show as favourites Delhi overcame a spirited challenge from Jammu and Kashmir winning by four wickets in their opening North Zone leg encounter of the Vijay Hazare National One Day championship.
Skipper Rajat Bhatia led from the front with a superb all-round show as favourites Delhi overcame a spirited challenge from Jammu and Kashmir winning by four wickets in their opening North Zone leg encounter of the Vijay Hazare National One Day championship.
Put into bat, Jammu and Kashmir scored 245 for four in 49 overs riding on Ian Dev Singh's unbeaten 102 at the Lohnu ground.
Unbeaten knock
In reply, Delhi were down in dumps at 59 for four before Bhatia played a brilliant counter-attacking innings scoring an unbeaten 106 off only 91 balls to guide his team home with 16 balls to spare. Bhatia's innings consisted of 10 fours and a six.
Apart from his century, Bhatia also took two wickets for 45 runs to put brakes on Jammu and Kashmir's scoring.
With this win, Delhi got four points from the encounter.
The match again proved that Bhatia was, is and will remain Delhi's 'Go-To' by a distance.
With the additional responsibility of leadership in absence of Shikhar Dhawan, who will be on national duty, Bhatia showed a lot of gumption as he put his hand up in crisis situation.
Tough task
With the departure of Mithun Manhas (13) and left-hander Vaibhav Rawal (6), the onus was on Bhatia and he did carry out his job manfully.
With Milind who faced 81 balls hitting seven fours dropping anchor at one end, it gave Bhatia the ideal platform to launch into the spinners.
Brief scores: Jammu and Kashmir 245/4 in 49 overs (Ian Dev Singh 102 no, Ahmed Bandy 50, Rajat Bhatia 2/45) v Delhi 249/6 (Rajat Bhatia 106 no, Milind Kumar 66). Delhi won by 4 wkts. Points: Delhi 4; J&K