NEW DELHI: When Delhi batter Yash Dhull’s struggles at the crease finally ended an hour into the second day’s play against Railways on Friday morning, the Ferozeshah Kotla crowd erupted in joy. It was time for the main act.
Virat Kohli marched out to the middle – to bat in a Ranji Trophy game for the first time in over 12 y ears – to loud chants of “Kohli, Kohli” and “RCB, RCB”.However, the thousands who had turned up were left disappointed as Kohli’s stay at the crease didn’t long.
After facing 15 balls and hitting one cracking boundary down the ground, Himanshu Sangwan‘s gentle inswinger sent Kohli’s offstump cartwheeling. India’s star batter trudged off after having scored just six runs, his head bowed, while Sangwan indulged in some animated celebrations. The crowd was stunned into silence. The show was over. The stadium was almost empty by the time Kohli could walk up to the pavilion.
It didn’t matter that Delhi captain Ayush Badoni played a thrilling knock of 99 off 77 and allrounder Sumit Mathur remained unbeaten on 78 at stumps to take Delhi to 334/7 in reply to Railways’ first-innings score of 241. The few who had stayed back thronged the fencing next to the pavilion where Kohli was seated in the balcony, their eyes fixed firmly on him.
Meanwhile, social media had gone into a tizzy, as usual, with Kohli fans hurling abuses at 29-year-old Sangwan, who incidentally made his Delhi U-19 debut along with Rishabh Pant.
The Railways bowler had been promoted to the post of a senior ticket examiner before the match, but knocking Kohli over will be etched in his memory forever.
It may just be an inconsequential domestic match, but Kohli’s problems against the moving ball around the off stump are real. The Railways seamers were, at best, bowling military-medium pace, but they didn’t deviate from the plan of sticking to a line and length with the newish ball. Kohli had been beaten twice on the outside edge by Kunal Yadav in the previous over.
The distinct lack of pace teased Kohli. Then ego got the better of him and he started walking towards the ball. It paid off when he shimmied down and smacked Sangwan straight down the ground for a boundary. It wasn’t a classical straight drive. It was a quintessential T20 smack. Next ball, he saw the off stump flying behind him from almost halfway down the pitch.
Brief scores: Railways 241 all out vs Delhi 334/7 in 96 overs (Ayush Badoni 99, Pranav Rajvanshi 39, Sumit Mathur 78 not out; Himanshu Sangwan 2/46, Kunal Yadav 2/82)