Shorey stands tall amid Delhi ruins

Opener Dhruv Shorey has emerged as the lone bright spot in Delhi’s Ranji Trophy campaign so far as the team from national capital collected just one point from the first two matches to lie in the second-last seventh spot of Elite Group B.

The right-handed batsman’s twin centuries in the match against Assam in Guwahati last week went in vain as Delhi conceded three points on first innings to the host.

They got only one, which incidentally was their first after the demoralising loss of Maharashtra in the season opener in Pune.

Delhi made 439 in first innings with Shorey emerging as the top-scorer with 252 not out. No other batsman could get to a half-century. Assam managed to scale that, scoring 443/9 before declaring, thanks to centuries from Rishav Das (160) and Gokul Sharma (140).

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Delhi pacer Harshit Rana took four for 94 while fellow seamer Pranshu Vijayran took three wickets for 82.

Delhi responded with 292/1 in their second innings with Shorey again clicking, with 150 not out. But by then it was too late as Assam had already taken the first-innings lead and there wasn’t much time to force an outright result.

“We had to be cautious in the first two sessions [of the match]. They bowled a very disciplined line. I gave respect to the bowlers. But I made sure to put the loose balls away,” said Shorey to Patriot.

The 30-year-old explained why other Delhi batsmen could not get going.

“The [Assam] bowlers had the advantage of bowling on Day 1. They were bowling in a disciplined manner. Our batsmen got some decent deliveries. There was one poor shot, one batsman was set but got out [and couldn’t convert the start into big score]. I made sure to hold one end. I was happy to see it come off well,” added Shorey.

With just one point from two games, things will definitely be for Delhi in the upcoming matches. They have five matches left in the season but they will have to score outright wins to progress.

“It will obviously be a bit tough. But we have five matches right now. Every match is important for us, right now. We will try to rectify the flaws we made and not repeat the same mistakes,” he added.

Shorey too has endured a strong of poor scores. In fact, he has failed to convert starts on occasions. He made 41 in the first innings of the match against Maharashtra but couldn’t go on as Delhi fell for 191.

He made a couple of scores of 40-odd besides scores of 10, 1 and 9 in the Vijay Hazare one-dayers prior to Ranji Trophy. That apart he made a half-century (81) in three Duleep Trophy innings in September.

“I got a good start, was batting on 40-odd in Pune [vs Maharashtra]. But I couldn’t convert it. In one-dayers, I was batting well. I got a couple of starts, but couldn’t convert them either. I was happy to convert a start this time. And it turned out to be big ones,” he added.

“I am trying to look at my career one day at a time. If we take it one day at a time, it will be very nice. We need to perform, whatever chances I get I want to encash them.”