Virender Sehwag produced probably the most restricted innings of his career as he hit his 40th first-class century to help Delhi attain a comfortable position in their Ranji Trophy encounter against Gujarat at Ferozeshah Kotla stadium on Monday. His 105-run knock along with Unmukt Chand’s second consecutive century (105) helped Delhi reach 425 for 6 when skipper Gautam Gambhir decided to declare the innings and put Gujarat in for around an hour towards the end of the day.
The plan worked well as off-spinner Shivam Sharma claimed the wicket of opener Samit Patel just before the stumps. Gujarat were 34 for 1 with skipper Priyank Kriti Panchal batting at 13 and Pranjal Sutaria at 1. As usual the play was delayed by an hour in the morning due to fog and upon resumption Delhi’s overnight batsmen — Unmukt (unbeaten on 97) and Sehwag (unbeaten on 2) — took more than the reasonable time to settle down.
In the one-and-a-half-hour morning session where 19 overs were bowled, Delhi scored just 38 runs. Three runs that Unmukt needed to complete his sixth first-class century came in around 45 minutes. He soon perished trying to make up for the slow run-rate but Sehwag didn’t let it affect his batting.
Keeping his natural attacking instinct under wraps, Sehwag kept going till he reached his first century in first-class cricket in around two years. “A team innings,” that’s how Delhi’s chief coach Vijay Dahiya described Sehwag’s ‘slow’ innings. A century in 145 balls is not exactly slow by the standards of four-day cricket but it certainly is by Sehwag’s standard. He is someone who has re-written the rules of batting. And now, in the twilight of his career, he is doing what many have always begged him to do - play fewer shots.
Despite playing a completely uncharacteristic knock, his shots still exuded class; the classical cover drive piercing through the cover and mid-off region, the square-cut that beat the deep point fielder and the upper-cut, all were reminiscent of his glory days.
Brief Scores
Delhi: 425/6d (Virender Sehwag 105, Unmukt Chand 105, Gautam Gambhir 66; Jesal Karia 2/81, Pranjal Sutaria 2/103) lead Gujarat: 34/1 (Shivam Sharma 1/12) by 391 runs.
Hat-trick of tons for Yuvi
Rajkot: Yuvraj Singh on Monday completed a hat-trick of centuries in the ongoing Ranji season before Mandeep Singh hit a double ton, which guided Punjab to a formidable 659/7 against Saurashtra. While Yuvraj made 182 runs off 299 balls, Mandeep went on to score a monumental 235 off 334 balls. Yuvraj spent 426 minutes in the middle, hitting 23 fours and two sixes. Mandeep struck 24 boundaries and three big sixes.