Sanat Sangwan grinds for 99 as Delhi reach 248/6 against Puducherry

New Delhi: Sanat Sangwan’s long vigil apart, Delhi batsmen faltered on Day One of their Ranji Trophy cricket match against Puducherry at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground on Saturday.

The Puducherry attack, led by Test bowler Jayant Yadav (who removed a dangerous looking Priyansh Arya (40 off 30 balls) and Anuj Rawat (5 off 12), was tight and disciplined.

Pace bowler Abin Mathew (3/47) emerged as the pick of the bowlers as he got rid of Arpit Rana (0), Ayush Doseja (17) and Sangwan (99).

With Ayush Badoni busy with India A, his deputy Yash Dhull was given charge of the team.

The left-handed Arya, who had a breakthrough IPL T20 season with Punjab Kings, stepped in to take Badoni’s place at No. 4 and showed intention to score runs immediately on walking out to bat.

When Arya went in, Delhi were moving at a snail’s pace, 30/2 in the 19th over. A cautious Sangwan had taken 36 balls to get off the mark and Dhull had made 19 of those runs before being caught behind off Aman Hakim Khan.

Arya tried to increase the tempo and scored four fours to move to 28 off 27 balls. He then hit two sixes straight down the ground off Jayant Yadav. A dot followed. He then tried to hit another big one off the fourth delivery but was stumped out. The score was 94 in the 31st over, and Delhi had broken the shackles thanks to aggressive batting by Arya.  

Ayush Doseja made 17 before he was caught at point in trying to slash one off Mathew.

Delhi were struggling at 123/4 at this point in time.  

However, Sumit Mathur (49 batting), promoted once again ahead of Anuj Rawat stitched a 106-run partnership with Sangwan before the left-handed opener fell one short of century, caught behind off Mathew to give the right-armer his third wicket of the day.

Wicketkeeper Rawat failed once again, caught and bowled by Jayant Yadav as Delhi ended the day at 248/6 in 80 overs.

Delhi made four changes for this game. While Arya replaced Badoni, pace bowler Siddhant Sharma, left-arm spinner Rounak Waghela and Navdeep Saini made way for Simarjeet Singh, Hrithik Shokeen and Sumit Kumar.

Tags : Sanat Sangwan, Ranji Trophy, Cricket, Puducherry, Jayant Yadav