Ranji Trophy: Delhi-Jharkhand's second day play called off due to wet outfield

Delhi’s first match of the Ranji Trophy season is turning out to be a damp squib. For the second successive day there was no play due to heavily wet outfield and the second day’s play had to be called off too. At the moment, Delhi skipper Gautam Gambhir, coach Sanjeev Sharma and senior player Rajat Bhatia are there on the field trying to gauge the situation. It has been raining in Jamshedpur for the last 10-12 days and although there has been no rain on Sunday and Monday, the first two days of the game, the damage done was enough to spoil the first two days. The Keenan Stadium, the venue of this game, has hosted 10 one-day internationals and the heavy rains have made the outfield slushy and marshy.

Sehwag, Gambhir cool heels as Delhi-Jharkhand Ranji first day washed out

It seems that Virender Sehwag’s bid to make a comeback is being halted by nature. Few days after the final of the Duleep Trophy was washed out in Kochi due to improper drainage facility robbing Viru of valuable batting practice, Sehwag’s first Ranji game of the season also saw wet outfield wash out the first day’s play. It had been raining over the past two days and although the weather was fine on Sunday, which was the scheduled first day, Keenan Stadium was waterlogged. The umpire will inspect the ground on Monday. Sehwag has been desperate to get into form and among runs after being discarded by the national selectors. He played the Challenger Series with mixed results but missed out on scoring in the games with West Indies A. This season is key for both him and Gautam Gambhir, who too hasn’t been in favour with selectors. Gambhir too couldn’t play the Duleep final and was down with viral before beginning his Ranji campaign.

Sarthak, Hiten star for Delhi U-19 in Vinoo Mankad

Sarthak Ranjan scored 108* while Hiten Dalal made 93 as Delhi U-19 hammered Haryana by nine wickets in the Vinoo Mankad Trophy. Earlier, Sumit Mathur ran through Haryana’s middle-order to take four wickets for 60 in 12 overs and bowl them out for 229 in 48 overs.

In another match at Jhajjar, Punjab (113/7) beat Himachal Pradesh (112 all out) by three wickets. SB Lal took 5 for 34.

Shelly Shaurya: What's he doing leading Delhi U-25?

Twelve days ago, former Delhi coach Vijay Dahiya made a searing statement on his twitter account. “Heartbreaking to see kids give their all in trial matches. Little do they realize that the selectors already have their "Sixteen" #DelhiU-25.”

Dahiya, who was Delhi Ranji coach till last year, was making his exasperation clear.

Nepotism and preferences are a case in every cricket association in India. In Delhi, they tend to get exposed more often. But rarely do players, of international level, make their feelings public like Dahiya did here.

The case in point were the selection trials for the Under-25 Delhi team that is going to compete in the Col CK Nayudu Trophy from October 28.

Firstly, the effort of the 110 kids went to waste. Seven of the kids that were in contention had already represented Delhi at the highest level and there were few others, who were already in contention for being backed by the management and the sports committee. So the question, as Dahiya pointed out, why were the rest of the kids called at all for trial games and made to waste their time, energy and money?

Worst is the case with the choice of captain, Shelly Shaurya. It was a terrible choice, to say the least. A kid who has not represented Delhi at the highest level was being made the captain ahead of seven players who have represented Delhi at the top level. Consider these members and their experience, Dhruv Shorey (6 List As & 3 T20s), Jagrit Anand (7 List As & 9 T20s), Varun Sood (16 List As & 18 T20s), Rahul Yadav (1 Ranji, 7 List As and 6 T20s), Yogesh Nagar (15 Ranji, 16 List As and 45 T20s), Rishit Saini (1 Ranji) and Sunny Sehrawat (1 Ranji & 2 T20s) --- they are all ahead in experience to Shaurya.

So, why was Shaurya picked and who is he? The story is interesting. His father, a member of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), had sat on fast unto death just a few weeks back and made it clear by sending SMSes to the management and ex-players about it. His grouse was that his son wasn’t selected for the Delhi one-day team that was to play the Challenger Trophy in late September in a team that comprised Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Rajat Bhatia, Puneet Bisht and Ashish Nehra among others.

“He is trying to extract his pound of flesh,” said a senior official at the time.

Shaurya’s dad had helped the current sports committee dislodge Tihara and his group from power after 10 years. He played a key role in having many clubs vote for the new dispensation in sports committee elections. “You can gauge the level of help he had provided by the manner of his demand. He wanted his inexperienced son to play in a high-quality, star-studded Challenger series that was to act trials for many India players like Sehwag,” said an official then.

The selection panel, headed by Chetan Chauhan, didn’t budge then and thankfully didn’t draft him. A similar demand was made to draft him into Ranji side that has already left for Ranchi but again it was turned down.

So, the next best option was to have him in U-25 and make him lead it. It is difficult to say how the rest of the more experienced players are feeling but Delhi Cricket is feeling surprised. The decision could also be harsh on Shaurya, who'll always be known more for the way he became the captain and not for his performances and always be under extra pressure.

Delhi U-19 beat Himachal Pradesh in Vinoo Mankad one-dayers

Match 5

Close on the heels of his more illustrious senior Ishant Sharma, Abhishek Vats too has started his career impressively for Delhi U-19s. The state team playing in one-dayers for the Vinoo Mankad Trophy beat Himachal Pradesh by four wickets on Thursday. Medium pacer Vats, who like Ishant plays for Rohtak Road Gymkhana, took five for 28 while Sarthak Ranjan (58) and Himmat Singh (34) put up impressive batting performances in Jhajjar. This was Delhi’s second successive win. Delhi got 4 points to move to 8 points from 2 matches. Himachal are yet to open their account.

Toss: Delhi captain Pratyush Singh who elected to field.

Brief Scores: Himachal Pradesh 156 all out in 47.2 overs (KN Panta 50, P Khandari 39, Abhishek Vats 5/28, Sarang Rawat 2/23, Rajesh Sharma 2/22)

Delhi:161  for 6 in 36.1 overs (Sarthak Ranjan 60, Himmat Singh 34, PP Jaiswal 2/37, AP Sharma 2/26)

Previous games

October 21

Match 1: J&K vs Himachal Pradesh Opener SP Khajuria scored 103* while Abrar Farooq took 2/29 as Jammu and Kashmir shocked Himachal Pradesh by six wickets in the first match of the U-19 domestic one-dayers for Vinoo Mankad Trophy.

Match 2: Haryana beat Punjab In a low-scoring match played at Lahli, Haryana beat Punjab by two wickets. Punjab were all out for 145 in 44.2 overs while Haryana chased it in 46.2 overs. HJ Rana took 3/15.

October 22

Match 3: Delhi beat Punjab In another low-scoring match at Jhajjar where run-making was not that easy Delhi triumphed over Punjab by 4 runs. Himmat Singh top-scored with 62. Delhi made 217 all out in their 50 overs and restricted Punjab at 213/9 to seal the win. It was a closely-fought match that hung in balance till the latter half of the Punjab innings. Delhi showed nerves to stop them just short of their total.

Match 4: J&K beat Haryana Jammu and Kashmir beat Haryana colts by 32 runs at Lahli. SP Khajuria top-scored for J&K with 72 runs while Lone Nasir, RK Sharma, AM Mangnoo took three wickets each.

Sehwag, Gambhir get down to business

Ahead of their Ranji Trophy season that begins on October 27, both Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir got down to business at the Ferozeshah Kotla during the Delhi practice session. Sehwag batted for about 45 minutes and then did some fielding practice while Gambhir, who has recovered from viral fever, too did some practice. The duo, who for long formed the world’s best opening combine, are now fighting to get back into national reckoning. Both seemed satisfied with the way they batted on Day One of practice. Delhi play their first match in Ranchi against Jharkhand from October 27. The Delhi team was announced on Tuesday with Gambhir named the skipper.

Shelly Shaurya surprise pick for Delhi U-25 captaincy

The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) picked Shelly Shaurya as the surprise skipper for Delhi U-25 team for the forthcoming Col CK Nayudu Trophy. The Delhi U-25 begin their campaign on October 28 at the Ferozeshah Kotla against Karnataka.

Squad: Shelly Shaurya (captain), Aditya Kaushik (vice-captain), Dhruv Shorey, Jagrit Anand, Varun Sood, Rahul Yadav, Yogesh Nagar, Samarth Singh, Aditya Saini, Rishit Saini, Saurabh Passi, Vaibhav Sharma, Abhishek Kapoor, Nipun Malhotra, Sunny Shokeen and Sunny Sehrawat.