Ranji Trophy: Bad light costs TN yet again; Sai rues conceding late runs

When Tamil Nadu began chasing a complete of 145 within the fourth innings in opposition to hosts Delhi and it wanted to realize that in a most of 17 overs, the hearts of the individuals current on the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Feroz Shah Kotla, began racing. The guests, because of a quickfire begin by their openers reached 30 within the first three overs after which 54/3 within the first six overs. 91 runs had been wanted from 66 balls.

With the Bazball in pattern and Tamil Nadu staff being one of many nice exponents of white ball cricket, the prospect of an exciting win for the guests was very probably. Fans feared yet one other unhealthy outing for the house staff. It was then that the solar saved the day for Delhi because the match was halted after six overs after which finally stopped attributable to unhealthy light.

It was deja vu for the staff from down south as this was the second match out of three the place unhealthy light stopped play and thwarted probabilities of a win for them. Earlier, in a match in opposition to Hyderabad, Tamil Nadu wanted 144 in 11 overs on the final day they usually reached 108/1 in seven overs. Bad light stopped play as Baba Inderjith-led aspect wanted solely 36 runs from the final 4 overs.

Ravi Sai Kishore, who was one of many chief architects of what might have been an excellent win for the 2014-15 Ranji Trophy runners-up, mentioned that they missed out on a win by gifting away too many runs within the third innings.

“We gave too many runs in the middle. We could have contained the Delhi batters when they were five for 209,” Sai instructed the Business Standard after the match. Delhi resumed their second innings from an in a single day rating of 27/1 and courtesy of dogged innings from Dhruv Shorey (70) and veteran Vaibhav Rawal (95*), reached 262 whilst Washington Sundar (4/43) and Sai Kishore (2/53) made scoring troublesome on a turning fourth-day pitch of Kotla.

Talking concerning the resolution of the umpires to halt the match attributable to unhealthy light, Sai Kishore, who took the wickets of Delhi skipper Yash Dhull and Himmat Singh mentioned, “We gave our greatest. The umpires needed to make the decision due to the benchmark set on day one and on all days the match wasn’t performed a lot past 16:30 hrs. So, we will’t blame it on the light. We wanted to include Delhi a bit earlier.”

Tamil Nadu, who haven’t reached a Ranji Trophy remaining since 2014-15, haven’t had an outright win up to now this season and lie in sixth place on the factors desk of Elite Group B. Only the highest two groups from every group transfer to the quarterfinals. The subsequent task of the aspect is in opposition to Mumbai, who’re the desk toppers.

“We are excited for the next game and having given our best in this one, we are confident of playing a great game again,” mentioned Sai, who has up to now taken 16 wickets and is the joint main wicket-taker for his aspect.

For Delhi, it was yet one other sport that they want to overlook and transfer on from. In the three matches that the seven occasions Ranji Trophy champions have performed this yr, they haven’t been capable of even take first innings lead in any of them. This was their first residence sport and even on this match, they might earn solely a single level. They subsequent play Saurashtara away at Rajkot.

Brief Scores:

Delhi 1st Innings- 303 (Dhruv Shorey- 67, L Vignesh 4-50)

Tamil Nadu 1st Innings- 427-8 Declared (Pradosh Paul- 124, Harshit Rana 3-121)

Delhi 2nd Innings- 262 (Vaibhav Rawal- 95*, Washington Sundar 4-43)

Tamil Nadu 2nd Innings- 54/3 ( B Sai Sudahrsan-24, Kuldip Yadav 2-27)