Himanshu Singh lands in Delhi to deliver killer punch to Sporting

New Delhi: Himanshu Singh, a 21-year-old Lucknowite, shone bright in his first-ever match in Delhi's summer season. The pint-sized batsman, who is well-balanced at the crease, took LB Shastri Coaching Centre to a five-wicket shocking win over Sporting Club in the Lala Raghubir Singh Memorial Cricket Tournament underway at the Modern School Grounds, Barakhamba Road.

Himanshu, who is from the stables of Saurabh Dubey, the same coach who has mentored Rajasthan Royals player Ravi Singh, walked in when the score was 105 for three with the target of 271 runs still a fair distance away. Soon the fourth wicket fell at 133 and it seemed that Sporting would walk away with the game.

But the right-hander then played some handsome strokes and stroked a 46-ball 94 (12x4s, 6x6s) and shared a 102-run partnership with Abhiraj Gagan Singh (44 off 42 balls) to set the chase and see them through to the total.

"I wasn't playing here. But my name was suggested to this club by academy-mate Yashvardhan Singh, who was due to play but couldn't. I was excited to play in Delhi as I had heard a lot about these tournaments. I am glad I got an opportunity to play at Lala Raghubir Tournament and perform," said the batsman, who played some exquisite pull shots.

Sporting, who suffered a defeat in the final of Laxman Das Chhabra Memorial on Friday, could not bat well during the Sunday's game.

Sarvesh Rohilla (76 off 49 balls, 8x4s, 4x6s) and Lalit Yadav (58 off 41, 6x4s, 3x6s) were the main contributors after the top-order had fallen meekly. As a result of failure of most of the line-up, the team was restricted to 270 all out in 37.1 overs.

Parnit Tiwari (3/43) was the pick of the bowlers.

Sporting were in the game at the start but then against Himanshu's stable head, lost track.

In another league match, this one played on Monday, leg-spinner Harshit Sethi took 5/9 as Noida Wonders produced a sensational win by defending a very modest target over Collage Sports.

While the Modern School grounds are known for heavy run-scoring and teams not scoring 300-plus runs almost always fail to win as was proved by Sporting, Noida Wonders didn't give up despite being dismissed for 248 in 39.3 overs. Skipper Harsh Tyagi starred with 70 off 61 balls (9x4s, 2x6s) while Tarun Bisht scored 52 off 44 balls (5x4s, 2x6s).

Although Collage made a great start by scoring 37 runs for the opening wicket inside four overs and then 83/2 inside 10 overs, they suffered a collapse against Sethi.

Tags : Himanshu Singh, Harshit Sethi, Delhi, Cricket, Lalit Yadav, Modern School