Jonty Sidhu rescues LB Shastri Coaching Centre from a tough position and helps them beat East Delhi Riders who saw a rearguard knock from Himmat Singh
05 Jun, 2025
After batting on hard surfaces of the Indian Premier League (IPL), where the ball comes onto the bat easily, it can get quie difficult to gauge the pace of the pitches in Delhi's local circuit.
Himmat Singh, who was part of the Lucknow Super Giants squad in IPL 2025, experienced it on way to his half-century in the Lala Raghubir Cricket semi-final on Wednesday. On Thursday, it was Priyansh Arya's turn to get befuddled by the pace of the surface.
The left-handed batsman, who played the IPL 2025 final for Punjab Kings on Tuesday, and ended the tournament with 475 runs, the highest by an uncapped player in the history of the tournament, could make only one off five balls. He played a delivery from Kushagra Sharma onto his stumps, perhaps assuming that it would come faster.
It was a massive breakthrough for East Delhi Riders in their 50th Goswami Ganesh Dutt Memorial Cricket Tournament at St Stephen's College Ground as they had the star batsman of the LB Shastri Cricket Club back in the dugout.
Nitish Rana, another IPL player (Rajasthan Royals) in LB Shastri in the line-up, was dismissed along with the talented Arnav Bugga and Hiten Dalal.
That left LB Shastri tottering at 50/4 in the eighth over. It was then left to Jonty Sidhu to rescue the team. Sidhu, a left-handed batsman, who has been part of the Delhi Ranji Trophy team and has come up with match-saving innings in 2023-24 season and 2024-25 season buckled down before beginning to play shots.
"I had to buckle down and look for opportunities to score after a while. Since we had lost the top-order early, my plan was to stick around till the end," said the batsman who made 85 off 42 deliveries (7x4s, 6x6s). He departed on the first ball of the 19th over, caught by Mayank Gusain off Harsh Tyagi.
Sidhu went for the kill in the penultimate over.
An unfortunate injury to Bhagwan Singh, who banged his chin on the pole of the sightscreen while trying to cut out a boundary off the bowling of Himmat Singh, rendered the fast bowler unfit to bowl his remaining two overs.
Bhagwan's chin has received a gash and his enthusiastic fielding, with which he made an impact in Delhi Premier League last year, proved to be his undoing.
Sidhu grabbed that opportunity and picked 15 runs in the second last over.
"Harsh Tyagi bowled a great last over, conceding just five runs. We suffered due to injury to Bhagwan Singh, who couldn't bowl his two overs and we had to press in someone else," said Himmat Singh, the skipper of East Delhi Riders, who are participating in the tournament to prepare for the Delhi Premier League.
The Riders, who were chasing 194, had a poor start to their innings too.
They found themselves struggling at 67/5. But then Himmat (82 off 52 balls; 5x4s, 6x6s) stitched a 112-run partnership with Harsh Tyagi (42 off 28 balls; 2x4s, 3x6s) for the sixth wicket to bring their team back in the match.
"We were in the game but lost Tyagi on the last ball of the 19th over. Then I had to farm the strike in the last over but I fell on the second ball of the 20th (last over) and we lost. We had thought of restricting the opposition to 180 but couldn't partly because of Bhagwan's injury," added Himmat.
The 50th edition of Goswami Ganesh Dutt Memorial Cricket is part of Delhi cricket's Hot Weather circuit. It is being played in T20 format with white ball and coloured clothing.
(Note: Picture shows Jonty Sidhu (left) receiving Player of the Match Award from ex-DDCA Treasurer Pawan Gulati)
Tags : Priyansh Arya, Himmat Singh, Jonty Sidhu, Delhi cricket, LB Shastri Coaching Centre, East Delhi Riders