New Delhi, Nov 11 (PTI) Delhi cricket hit a new low on Tuesday after a spirited Jammu and Kashmir thrashed them by seven wickets for their first-ever Ranji Trophy victory over the formidable opposition that was powered by opener Qamran Iqbal’s superb hundred here.
After four games, Delhi coached by Sarandeep Singh, are sixth among eight teams in Group D with seven points and it will take a miracle to qualify for the knockouts with only four points from three home games.
Questionable selections, poor strategies, absence of smart captaincy and a state unit in which teams have suffered due to factionalism and infighting has brought about the team’s downfall.
Since 1960, Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir have met 43 times and 37 of those games have ended in outright wins for the seven-time champions.
Chasing a target of 179 for victory, J&K needed 124 runs on the final day with opener Iqbal (133 not out off 147 balls) at the crease with night-watchman Vanshaj Sharma (8 off 55 balls).
What looked like a difficult pitch suddenly became placid as Iqbal took it upon himself to use his long levers and big stride to negate any turn off the surface.
The roughs and indents were created on both sides of the track and Delhi’s spinners Mannan Bhardwaj and Hrithik Shokeen didn’t attack the stumps as much, trying to bowl too fast which also didn’t get them any purchase.
Towards the end, Iqbal was hitting one-handed slog swept sixes and lofted boundaries. Even 40-year-old skipper Paras Dogra, the former doyen of Himachal Pradesh cricket, played his part with a first innings hundred.
In his 22nd first class season, Dogra only second to Mumbai stalwart Wasim Jaffer in terms of runs in Ranji Trophy, scored tons against both Mumbai and Delhi this season.
For Delhi, retaining Sarandeep as the head coach after a disastrous last season due to alleged pressures from a strong DDCA lobby has only ensured that there was no consistency in selection.
Skipper Ayush Badoni is scoring some attractive half-centuries but no team in domestic cricket is in awe of him.
Arpit Rana, a top scorer in DPL, has been found wanting against quality seam bowling as Auqib Nabi with his seaming deliveries exposed his poor technique.
A positive opening batter like Priyansh Arya was benched in first two games only to be played out of position at No.4.
Worse, with two good keeper batters in Tejasvi Dahiya and Pranav Raghuvanshi on the bench, Anuj Rawat, a player with less than 30 average across eight seasons keeps on playing.
After this defeat, DDCA president Rohan Jaitley is expected to crack the whip.
Draw in Hyderabad ============= In the last group match to finish on Tuesday, Hyderabad earned three points for taking a first-innings lead after the contest against Rajasthan ended in a draw on the fourth and final day in Hyderabad.
Hyderabad, who had put 364 on board batting first, had taken a lead of 95 runs as Rajasthan managed only 269 in their first innings.
Resuming the final day’s play at 198/7 with an overall lead of 293 runs, Hyderabad declared at 244/9 to set a improbable target of 340 runs for Rajasthan to win in less than three sessions.
The visitors reached 207 for three with opening batter Salman Khan making a fluent 79 (138 balls, 4x4s, 2x6s) in their second innings when the game was called off sometime after the tea break.
Rajasthan earned one point from the game.
Hyderabad were placed at the top of the points table in Group D with better quotient before the fourth round but victories for other teams pushed them to third with a total of 13 points.
Mumbai’s win over Himachal Pradesh by an innings and 120 runs saw them move to the top of the table with 17 points, followed by Jammu and Kashmir at the second with 14 points.
Chhattisgarh, who had handed Pondicherry a 10-wicket defeat on the third day, are placed fourth.
Brief scores: At New Delhi: Delhi 211 and 277 J&K 310 and (target 179) 179/3 (Qamran Iqbal 133 not out).
At Hyderabad: Hyderabad 364 and 244/9d in 78 overs (Rahul Singh Gahlaut 59; Mahipal Lomror 4/51) drew with Rajasthan 269 & 207/3 in 57 overs (Salman Khan 79; Tanay Thyagarajan 2/72). PTI KHS APA DDV PM DDV PM PM
Category: Breaking News
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