Thanks to the five wickets of off -spinner Shivam Sharma, Delhi ended his campaign in the Ranji Trophy League here on Saturday by winning the bonus points on the railway. Delhi, which started the day by 334 runs for seven wickets, scored 374 runs in the first innings and took a lead of 133 runs. Railway batsmen played some careless shots, which led to the match results. In the afternoon session, the railway team was all out for 114 runs in 30.4 overs and lost by an innings and 19 runs.
This victory gave Delhi seven points including bonus. With this result, the audience was bereft of watching star batsman Virat Kohli batting for the second time in the match. Sumit Mathur (86) for Delhi could not convert 78 nights into a century as Kohli’s wicket on the second day Himanshu Sangwan lbw and took four wickets. This was Delhi’s second win of this session.
The team’s probability of making a place in knockout from Elite Group D will depend on the results of other matches. In this match, only one player Kohli attracted the attention of the entire country who returned to the Ranji Trophy after 13 years. The audience did not get a chance to see Kohli in the second innings as the railway batsmen were dismissed early on a slow pitch. Former Indian captain Kohli was dismissed after scoring six runs after playing only 15 balls in the first innings on the second day.
Railways lost wickets continuously after Suraj Ahuja was dismissed on the Inswinger of Delhi’s left -handed fast bowler Siddhant Sharma. His salute partner Vivek Singh (12) put a brilliant cover drive off the principle of theory but was dismissed by Shivam due to excessiveness. After a while, Mohammad Saif (31 off 31 balls) was also dismissed by Shivam. Siddhant dismissed Suraj Ahuja on Inswinger.
Delhi also did not expect the match to end so soon. Navdeep Saini dismissed Bhargava Marai and scored 57 for four wickets. Railway’s first innings star batsman Upendra Yadav (19) was dismissed on the incoming ball of Mani Grewal. Delhi captain Ayush Badoni dismissed the number ten batsman Kunal Yadav, after which the number 11 batsman Anchit Yadav did not come to bat after which the match was over.
Kohli spent a lot of time in the dressing room with fellow players, shook hands and took photographs. He also went to the railway dressing room to meet the players of the opposition team.