Vikas Dixit stars as Delhi beat Saurashtra

Off-spinner Vikas Dixit, who came into limelight after a 10-wicket haul in the DDCA league match a couple of seasons back, helped Delhi U-19 beat Saurashtra by eight wickets in the Cooch Behar U-19 match at Rajkot. The win puts Delhi colts, who became the North Zone one-day champions this year, in a strong position and favourites in the group. They had earlier beaten Kerala.

Dixit made 92 while Jonty Sidhu scored 97 as Delhi were all out for 355 in first innings. Rajesh Sharma made 52 while Rishabh Pant scored 50. Dixit then took 7/74 as Saurashtra were bundled out for 192. Following on, hosts Saurashtra could make only 313 runs with Samarth Vyas scoring 74 and Priyajit Chudasama 56. Sagar Malik took 6/77. Delhi, needing 151, romped home with eight wickets to spare. Rishabh Pant made 77 not out while Sarthak Ranjan scored 65.

Delhi 355 (Jonty Sidhu 97, Vikas Dixit 92, Rajesh Sharma 52, Rishabh Pant 50) and 154/2 (Rishabh Pant 77*, Sarthak Ranjan 65) beat Saurashtra 192 (Vikas Dixit 7/74) and 313 Samarh Vyas 74, Priyajit Chudasama 56, Sagar Malik 6/77)

 

Delhi get three points over Kerala in U-19

Captain Himmat Singh’s 50, Rajesh Sharma’s 61 and Kunwar Biduri’s 70 helped Delhi beat Kerala via first innings lead and get three points in the Cooch Behar U-19 cricket tournament. Delhi had made 283 in the first innings to which Kerala replied with just 223.
Delhi 283 & 312 vs Kerala 223

Parents get worked up, want to sue NCT

When the Delhi Under-19 team was announced ahead of the zonal one-dayers recently, Bishan Singh Bedi expressed disgust at some of the selections. In a letter dated October 1, he lashed out at seven selections calling them a result of proxies and influential people. He named Suryansh Tyagi, Utkarsh Singh, Viren Singh, Tejas Broca, Karan Bidhuri, Arjun Khanna and Ishan Kantewala as those undeserving and forced into the team for the Vinoo Mankad games.

Well, it wasn’t exactly wrong criticism. The Delhi team management didn’t play all of them and of those that played, one or two did come up with important knocks. Irrespective of the criticism, the team went to win the North Zone league which was largely thanks to efforts of vice-captain and dashing batsman Himmat Singh who hammered two back to back hundreds and got a half-century as well.

There is no doubt that Himmat is one of the best talents around and the selectors, rightly it seems pushed the Modernite’s name for captaincy for the days’ version --- the Cooch Behar Trophy. Quite a few of the names mentioned above are in the U-19 team, and their parents have reportedly threatened to sue the officials of NCT (the body formed by Bedi & Co for fighting the ills in DDCA) if they continue to malign the names. An official with the current sports committee confided that the parents are ready to sue the officials if they don’t stop spilling the beans.