Delhi thump Mizoram in Vijay Hazare one-dayers

Delhi recorded their second successive win in the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-dayers, beating Mizoram by eight wickets in Ahmedabad.

Delhi, opting to bowl, did well enough to restrict domestic cricket’s newcomers Mizoram to 128 in 42.1 overs.

Leg-spinner Suyash Sharma, who is debuting in the 50-overs format, starred with 4/25 in 9.1 overs. The 20-year-old was the second highest wicket-taker across the country in Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament.

Pace bowler Divij Mehra, who was part of the Ranji Trophy team last season, made his one-day debut in Saturday’s game. He got two early wickets against Mizoram, reducing them to 16/3 in just the innings’ eighth over.

“All the bowlers performed well. Divij did well on his debut. All the bowlers were among wickets,” said Himmat Singh, whose half-century helped Delhi chase the target in 16.5 overs.

Himmat was the only one among the seven bowlers used on the day to not get a wicket.

The right-handed batsman scored 52 not out off 43 balls while Ayush Badoni made 45 not out in 24 deliveries.

“The pitch was good. The intention was to chase very quickly because in tournaments, net run rate matters when teams in a pool get stuck on the same points towards the end. Since the tournament has just started, we wanted to begin on a very strong note. We have won the first two matches by eight wickets. That is very satisfying,” added Himmat to Patriot.

Delhi had beaten Bihar by eight wickets in their first game, chasing the 150-run target in just 22.1 overs.

It means that Delhi haven’t required even half the overs to get to the target which has helped them take the top slot for now in Group C, ahead of Chandigarh and Karnataka, who too are on the same number of points but are lagging due to slightly inferior net run rate.

Delhi now face Karnataka on November 27.

“The next game is very important since it will be against Karnataka, who are very strong.”

Karnataka, led by India Test star Mayank Agarwal and comprising Devdutt Padikkal and Manish Pandey, will be Delhi’s first real challenge.