Navdeep Saini keeps Delhi in the game with blistering late spell

New Delhi: Just when it seemed like Himachal Pradesh were pushing Delhi back in their ongoing Ranji Trophy cricket game at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground, pace bowler Navdeep Saini produced a blistering spell that shook the visiting side’s batting, forcing them to finish at 165/3 after they were well-placed at 133/1.

Sidhant Purohit, the opening batsman, had held the innings together with a gritty 70 off 165 deliveries and added 86 with Ankush Bains (43) for the first wicket.

It was a flat pitch that the Delhi batsmen could not exploit fully. Ideally, they would have liked to score in excess of 500 after they resumed at 306/4 with Ayush Doseja and Sumit Mathur well-settled. However, after Doseja’s dismissal for 75 with the team score at 342, the team folded for 430.

The Himachal batsmen who walked in when the sun was at its zenith and the flat well baked had an easy passage.

They were also helped by the fact that Delhi skipper Ayush Badoni showed less trust in his pace bowlers in the initial phase.

Till about the 40th over, Navdeep Saini had bowled just four overs while Money Grewal had bowled seven. Left-arm pacer Siddhant Sharma, who was drafted in, bowled only three overs throughout the day.

Either Badoni thought that the pitch had nothing for the pace bowlers or he had confidence in his own bowling – he had taken six wickets in an innings in the first game, so he bowled seven or eight overs in that phase.

However, after failing to get any wicket either by himself or through regular spinners like Mathur (who removed Bains) and Rounak Waghela, he was forced to bring in Navdeep Saini, who had stepped out into the dressing room prior to the late spell. Saini extracted pace and bounce and returned with 2/11 in five overs in the second spell for the day’s figures of 2/20 in nine overs.

He got rid of No. 3 Kalsi, having one bounce at him, which a diving Sanat Sangwan caught at gully. Soon after that, he bowled one that seemingly nipped back as the batsman Purohit shouldered arms only to see off-stump get uprooted.

Saini wasn’t done yet. He ensured that he troubled the batsmen Pukhraj Mann and Ekant Sen, throwing in short-pitched deliveries and those that whizzed past the bat.

Himachal finished at 165/3 in 55 overs and Saini will again have to step on the gas to help Delhi gain first innings lead.

Quite funnily, Badoni and Arpit Rana, both part-time spinners bowled 17 overs out of the 55 Delhi bowled on Sunday – Badoni 11 and Rana six overs.

Tags : Ranji Trophy, Delhi, cricket, Navdeep Saini, Ayush Badoni, Ferozeshah Kotla