Arpit Rana, Sanat Sangwan hit tons but Delhi lose points

New Delhi: From a game they were supposed to earn full points, Delhi squandered three points and walked away with just one point.

Pondicherry had taken a 187-run lead in first innings on Day 3 of their Ranji Trophy game at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground and unless Delhi were to wipe that out quickly and set a target of about 200 and take wickets, the result was a foregone conclusion.

Perhaps the Delhi cricket team, thought that the pitch had no assistance for bowlers and a better option would be to safeguard one point.

Additionally, there were some mini battles that players had to fight. So they batted out Day 3 and then batted out the fourth day’s two sessions before the game was adjourned as a draw.

Left-handed opening batsman Arpit Rana, facing competition from IPL star Priyansh Arya, had to prove a point. He did that in style, scoring 170 not out off 275 balls to help Delhi finish at 321 without loss. He played beautifully, stroking the ball all around. The innings also denied Arya a chance in the middle. Arya will be leaving to join India A for the Rising Star Asia Cup to be held in Doha from November 14.

Sanat Sangwan continued building on his fine form, scoring 122 not out. He is now the leading run-getter in Ranji Trophy with 568 runs at an average of 142. The left-hander has been consistent throughout and has held one end up on most occasions.

However, all these heavy runs came to no use as this match was decided on the basis of first innings.

Delhi, after winning points on first innings in the first two matches, against Hyderabad and Himachal Pradesh, have conceded for the first time.

While batting flopped in the first innings, bowling also lacked bite. It is a mystery why Delhi’s bowlers like Navdeep Saini and Simarjeet Singh cannot play matches in succession and perform. It is probably because of the heavy workload caused by the extended Delhi Premier League (DPL) that they aren’t able to consistently perform at the optimum level. The bowlers allowed Pondicherry to run away with 481 although one can imagine that lack of a decent total in the first innings by their batsmen – Delhi fell for 296 -- may have disheartened them after the total was overwhelmed.

Nevertheless, Delhi have a massive task at hand. They play Jammu and Kashmir at home this week. The J&K team are a tough nut to crack. They also have Mumbai after the break. That match will be away.

Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh are the other teams in the group.

Here is Delhi’s schedule for remaining league games:

vs Jammu and Kashmir in Delhi from November 8.

vs Rajasthan at Rajsamand from November 16

vs Chhattisgarh at Raipur from January 22

vs Mumbai at Mumbai from January 29

Tags : Delhi cricket team, Ranji Trophy, Pondicherry, Arpit Rana, Sanat Sangwan