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Confident Delhi eyes full points

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Virat Kohli’s confidence reflected in the Delhi team management’s decision to order a green top for the Ranji Tophy Super League match against Maharashtra. The four-day contest begins at the Roshanara Club ground here on Tuesday.

“We will have a green pitch. Our strength lies in our seam bowlers and we need full points from this match. The team’s overall confidence is high and we expect the trend to continue. It will be a result-oriented pitch,” said Delhi coach Vijay Dahiya.

Kohli has infused a sense of pride in the Delhi dressing room after the gloom of the first three matches when the team suffered from uninspiring leadership.

“Virat is amazingly positive,” was the unanimous view of the selectors as they took the bold decision to relieve Aakash Chopra of the responsibility of leading the team.

The move proved immensely beneficial as Delhi beat Saurashtra to register its first win of the season.

Chopra withdraws

In a late night development, Chopra withdrew from the team on ‘health grounds.’ Rahul Yadav takes his place in the team.

With nine points to its credit, Delhi will need to win against Maharashtra, which is one of the youngest teams in the domestic circuit.

“We are not taking Maharashtra lightly. We are only banking on our combination where each player has a specific role to play,” said Dahiya.

Kohli’s form should exhort the likes of Mithun Manhas to give his best when the team needs. The reliable Rajat Bhatia will expectedly carry the load in the middle order.

Young side

Maharashtra obviously has invested in the future by fielding a very young side. With no big names, the onus has been on skipper Harshad Khadiwale, Kedar Jadhav and Ankit Bawane, who have a century each to their credit.

Eighteen-year-old Rohit Motwani is the team’s leading scorer with 284 runs, including three half-centuries, with support from Sangram Atitkar. Delhi will also have to watch out for left-arm seamer Samad Fallah and left-arm spinner Kiran Adhav.

The teams (from): Delhi: Virat Kohli (captain), Ankur Julka, Mithun Manhas, Rajat Bhatia, Yogesh Nagar, Puneet Bisht, Sumit Narwal, Pradeep Sangwan, Parvinder Awana, Pawan Suyal, Vikas Mishra, Gaurav Chhabra, Aditya Jain, Rahul Yadav and Abhishek Kapoor.

Maharashtra: Harshad Khadiwale (captain), Rohan Bhosale, Sangram Atitkar, Kedar Jadhav, Ankit Bawane, Ganesh Gaikwad, Rohit Motwani, Samad Fallah, Sajin Sureshnath, Kiran Adhav, Azhar Ansari, Digambar Waghmare, Ranjit Chavan, Amay Shrikhande and Jitendra Patil.

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