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September
24, 2008
 Last
season's Ranji Champs - Delhi have grabbed some good advantage
by bowling out the Anil Kumble led Rest of India Squad for
just 252 on the opening day's play of the Irani Cup match at
Vadodara. India's strike bowler Ishant Sharma produced a lot
of venom with a reverse swinging ball to change the complexion
of the game which looked to be in favour of Rest of India
after a solid start from Jaffer and Dravid. The rest of the
Delhi bowlers complemented Ishant along with the fielders who
did take some fine catches. Overall it was a day when the Rest
of India batsmen lacked application with a lot of unnecessary
shots. Delhi after restricting their opponents for a moderate
score rounded off the day smoothly at 21 for 0.
Anil Kumble won a good toss which gave his
side the opportunity to bat first on what looked to be a slow
and dead
track. The pitch had no pace, no bounce and no
sideways movement for the seamers. Neither was there any swing
in the air with the brand new SG ball for the likes of Nehra,
Ishant and Sangwan. ROI's opening combination of Jaffer and
Dravid took advantage of that and they played in their natural
style of building their innings. Runs were in particular
leaked by an inexperienced Pradeep Sangwan, who lacked the
pace and the accuracy to bowl six decent deliveries in an
over. Delhi's breakthrough came when Jaffer closed the face of
the blade too soon to be caught at covers off leggie Chetanya
Nanda. Jaffer had stroked his way to 50 from 91 balls with 5
fours out of a 77-run opening stand. At Lunch, ROI were
looking good at 105 for the loss of Jaffer in 34 overs. But
the real test was about to come in the post lunch session,
especially once the young Ishant decided to bend his back. The
lanky fast bowler produced one unplayable delivery that swung
back sharply at a good pace and at the same time to shoot low
and strike Dravid (46 from 95 balls with 4 fours) dead infront
of the stumps. Ishant was in the middle of a superb spell as
he asked a lot of questions to the batsmen while not conceding
any runs at all.
S Badrinath, like in the International A Tri
Series had shown that he wasn't really upto the mark when it
comes to handling some quality fast bowling. He was almost out
lbw to an Ishant indipper but for the Umpire giving him the
benefit of doubt. Ishant, however could get his wicket very
soon as Badri played a loose backfoot drive to a delivery that
was climbing up and crashing back onto the timber. Badrinath
struggle in his 62-ball stay which produced 16 runs. Delhi
could get ROI at 127 for 3 with that strike and they made
further inroads in a slightly thin batting line-up as Laxman
and Dhoni fell playing rank bad shots. First, it was Laxman
(17 from 52) throwing it away with a needless slog sweep off
Sehwag that went straight into the hands of short mid wicket.
About six overs later, MS Dhoni (5) attempted to reach out to
a delivery with his wrists to try and force it on the up, but
he could only edge a Sangwan delivery in the slips. Now there
was no stopping for the Delhi bowlers in the clean-up job with
even Mohammad Kaif losing his wicket through a poorly executed
pull off Nanda. With cameos coming in from Harbhajan (26 not
out from 33 balls), RP Singh (18) and Munaf Patel (19 from 10
balls with 4 fours), ROI reached 252. Their innings lasted
just the 81.3 overs.
Ishant Sharma was amazing as he gave away
just the 22 runs in his 12.3 overs besides taking three
wickets. Left arm medium pacer Sangwan also took three wickets
but at some cost and leggie Nanda finished with a decent 3 for
60 in 27.1 overs. Delhi batted 5 overs without any loss before
stumps. Akash Chopra seems to be in great touch as he has
moved onto 16 from 18 with 3 fours. Delhi hold the advantage
for sure as they have the dangerous Sehwag in their team and a
couple of hours from him will certainly give a lead for the
Ranji Champs. Rest of India, on the other hand will believe
that they have a strong bowling unit that can bring them back
in the game.
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