Delhi ride on Tejasvi Dahiya, Priyansh Arya and Ayush Badoni blitzkrieg to beat Karnataka

Blustering half-centuries from Priyansh Arya (62 off 33 balls), Ayush Badoni (53 off 35 balls) and Tejasvi Dahiya (53 not out off 19 balls) helped Delhi defeat Karnataka by 45 runs in a Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 match.

The heart-warming win, coming two days after the Nitish Rana-led side had succumbed to Tripura by 12 runs, had given fresh hope to Delhi to make it to the knockouts.

Delhi had been pushed down to fourth in the Elite Group D points table after loss in the previous match. However, the latest win has pushed them up to third spot.  

The key to Delhi’s success on Thursday was the big score, big enough to give them a huge margin of win.

“The idea was to improve the net run rate (NRR) by scoring as much as possible, just to give ourselves a cushion in case NRR comes into play,” said Dahiya after his quickfire fifty.

Dahiya is playing as a specialist batsman as Delhi are persisting with Anuj Rawat as specialist keeper.  

The start by Delhi was good despite the loss of in-form Dhull early.

Arya and Badoni had added 110 runs for the second wicket and that set the platform.

“I was batting third-down. The situation was good when I walked in. Priyansh [Arya] and Ayush [Badoni] had scored 50s. I had to carry the momentum and improve the net run rate.

“Since it was a pitch that supported the spinners a lot, our plan was to target the medium pacers. They were hitting slow bouncers, so I went after them by targeting the square leg and straight boundaries,” said Dahiya, who hit five sixes and three fours.

Dahiya also said that playing only as a fielder is a new challenge.

“You enjoy new challenges. How to field in a day game and how to field in a day-night match. I am comfortable in the field,” said Dahiya.

Karnataka, faced with a target of 233 in 20 overs after Delhi had scored 232/3, were bowled out for 187 in 19.3 overs.

The presence of Devdutt Padikkal (62 off 38 balls) and Karun Nair (two off five), who both had represented India recently did not help as the Karnataka boys fell 45 runs short. Samaran R top-scored with 72 off 38 balls (3x4s, 6x6s).

Ishant Sharma, who missed the previous game, finished with 2/36 while Prince Yadav got 2/27. Digvesh Rathi picked 2/30.

Tags : Tejasvi Dahiya, Ayush Badoni, Priyansh Arya, Syed Mushtaq Ali T20, Karun Nair, Nitish Rana