Delhi cricket on Tuesday hit a new low after a spirited Jammu and Kashmir, riding on opener Qamran Iqbal’s superb hundred, thrashed them by seven wickets, their first-ever victory over formidable opposition in the history of Ranji Trophy cricket.
After four games, Delhi coached by Sarandeep Singh, are sixth among eight teams in group D with seven points and it will take a miracle to qualify for the knockouts with only four points from three home games.
Questionable selections, poor strategies, absence of street smart captaincy and a state unit where teams have suffered due to factionalism and infighting has brought about the team’s downfall.
Since 1960, Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir have met 43 times and 37 of those games ended in outright wins for the seven-time champions.
Chasing a target of 179 for victory, J&K needed 124 runs on the final day with opener Iqbal (133 not out off 147 balls) at the crease with nightwatchman Vanshaj Sharma (8 off 55 balls).
What looked like a difficult pitch suddenly didn’t create any problems as Iqbal took it upon himself to use his long levers and big stride to negate any turn off the surface.
The roughs and indents were created on both sides of the track and Delhi’s spinners Mannan Bhardwaj and Hrithik Shokeen didn’t attack the stumps as much, trying to bowl too fast which also didn’t get them any purchase.
Towards the end, Iqbal was hitting one-handed slog swept sixes and lofted boundaries. Even 40-year-old skipper Paras Dogra, the former doyen of Himachal Pradesh cricket, played his part with a first innings hundred.
In his 22nd first class season, Dogra only second to Mumbai stalwart Wasim Jaffer in terms of runs in Ranji Trophy, scored tons against both Mumbai and Delhi this season.
For Delhi, retaining Sarandeep as the head coach after a disastrous last season due to alleged pressures from a strong DDCA lobby has only ensured that there was no consistency in selection.
Skipper Ayush Badoni is scoring some attractive half-centuries but no team in domestic cricket is in awe of him.
Arpit Rana, a top scorer in DPL, has been found wanting against quality seam bowling as Auqib Nabi with his seaming deliveries exposed his poor technique.
A positive opening batter like Priyansh Arya was benched in first two games only to be played out of position at No.4.
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Worse, with two good keeper batters in Tejasvi Dahiya and Pranav Raghuvanshi on the bench, Anuj Rawat, a player with less than 30 average across eight seasons keeps on playing.
After this defeat, DDCA president Rohan Jaitley is expected to crack the whip.
Brief Scores:
Delhi 211 and 277 J&K 310 and (target 179) 179/3 (Qamran Iqbal 133 not out).
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