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Delhi clinches Ranji Trophy

Nandakumar Marar

— Photo: Vivek Bendre

Leading from the front: Delhi skipper Gautam Gambhir made light of the run chase with an unbeaten hundred.

MUMBAI: Pradeep Sangwan, roommate of Ishant Sharma on India under-19 team’s tour to England last season, dashed Uttar Pradesh’s hopes with a five-wicket haul in the Ranji Trophy Super League final. Leading Delhi in the absence of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir made light of the 230-run chase with an effortless 130 in the second innings on Saturday.

United effort

Ishant and Sehwag were missed, but a united effort from the others made victory possible for Delhi, defeating U.P. by nine wickets at the Wankhede Stadium to emerge India’s champion side for the seventh time.

The trophy was handed over to Gambhir by Dilip Vengsarkar, Chairman of selectors, present along with Sanjay Jagdale and Bhupinder Singh, fellow selectors, for first-hand impressions of the talent on view.

Left-armer Sangwan made life difficult for the U.P. batsmen. “The bounce at Wankhede was similar to what I extracted from tracks in South Africa during the one-dayers. I had to only bowl in the right areas to be effective,” said Sangwan, released by the BCCI from India U-19 tour duties to play the final.

Clueless

The U.P. lower-order batsmen were clueless against the powerful youngster, whose three wickets of the day came off incoming deliveries, cutting short its second innings to 177 at the end of a 5-3-5-3 spell. Amit Bhandari chipped in with one wicket and wicketkeeper Punit Bisht snapped up four catches.

Gambhir’s competence in negotiating new ball bowlers Praveen Kumar and Sudeep Tyagi, and temperament in staying long enough to hold the innings together came to the fore. Sangwan had called the shots in the morning, now the U.P. new ball attack looked toothless. The first wicket stand worth 91 with Aakash Chopra (33 off 79 balls) sealed Delhi’s win.

Mohd. Kaif turned to spinners Praveen Gupta and Piyush Chawla after seeing Gambhir’s comfort level against Praveen and Tyagi. The Delhi captain’s 50 took just 61 balls with nine hits to the fence. A stumping by Amir Khan was negated after the umpires consulted the third umpire. The left-hander, on 58 at that stage, cruised to 100 off 129 balls.

Growing in stature

For an international-class batsman out for zero in the first innings, the match-winning130 not out (154 balls, 17x4) will go a long way in cementing his image as a hands-on captain worthy of taking over the Delhi reins from Sehwag, whenever the India dasher is away on national duty.

Gambhir had done it before in the semifinals against Baroda, a 132 in the second innings paving the way for Delhi’s entry to the final. “After going through the lows last season (Delhi escaped relegation), I told the players it is time we experienced the highs as well. You don’t know what will happen next year,” said Gambhir.

The scores:

U.P. — 1st innings: 342.

Delhi — 1st innings: 290.

U.P. — 2nd innings: Rohit Srivastava c Bisht b Bhatia 18, Tanmay Srivastava (run out) 1, Suresh Raina c Bisht b Sangwan 85, Mohd. Kaif c Bisht b Sangwan 21, Ravikant Shukla c Jain b Bhandari 0, Piyush Chawla c Dharmani b Narwal 4, Bhuvanesh Kumar b Sangwan 19, Amir Khan c Bisht b Sangwan 12, Praveen Kumar b Sangwan 1, Praveen Gupta c Bhatia b Bhandari 13, Sudeep Tyagi (not out) 0; Extras (lb-1, nb-2) 3; Total (in 63.2 overs) 177.

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-63, 3-123, 4-126, 5-130, 6-130, 7-154, 8-160, 9-169.

Delhi bowling: Pradeep Sangwan 20-6-46-5, Sumit Narwal 16-6-65-1, Amit Bhandari 11.2-2-28-2, Rajat Bhatia 9-4-14-1, Chetanya Nanda 7-1-23-0.

Delhi — 2nd innings: Gautam Gambhir (not out) 130, Aakash Chopra c Kaif b P. Gupta 33, Shikhar Dhawan (not out) 54; Extras (b-5, lb-3, nb-2, w-3) 13; Total (for one wkt. in 55.1 overs) 230.

Fall of wicket: 1-91.

U.P. bowling: Praveen Kumar 18-4-48-0, Sudeep Tyagi 12.1-2-59-0, Bhuvanesh Kumar 3-1-8-0, Praveen Gupta 14-0-77-1, Piyush Chawla 8-0-30-0.

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