Delhi cricket operates in a bizarre manner. There seems to be no coordination between the team and the management. While administrators keep changing one or two players in the squad, senior players run their own ‘government’ in the dressing room. There are different yardsticks for different players. While seniors can pick and choose their matches, juniors (sometimes even national team contenders) can be dropped at will to include ‘favourites’ — it doesn’t matter what the team needs.
Selectors feel that “players’ lobby is working here and they are continuously defying the administration.”On Thursday, Delhi needed to win their last north zone one-day league encounter against Services, a team they have rarely lost against, to qualify for the knockout round of Vijay Hazare Trophy to be held in Kolkata.
With Virender Sehwag (flu) and Rajat Bhatia (injury) already out, three more senior players, rather strangely, opted out of the match for different reasons. It is learnt that Mithun Manhas had back pain, Ishant Sharma had a swollen ankle and Ashish Nehra was ‘fatigued’ due to continuous cricket. One wonders if they would have done the same if it was IPl!
Nehra, senior-most member of the team, communicated his unavailability for the match to selectors last night at around 11:00 PM. He, however, remained part of the 15-member squad and was supposed to report at the ground by 8:15 AM but he walked in at 11:30 AM.
Expressing displeasure, a selector said, “What precedent is he trying to setIJ Had a junior done the same thing, he would have been sent back.”
As a result of seniors pulling out of the crucial match, defending champions Delhi lost the crucial game to Services by 44 runs to bow out of the tournament and give the latter their first knockout berth ever. Asked to bat, Services rode on 168-run partnership between skipper Yashpal Singh and Rajat Paliwal to post 257 for 5.
In reply, Delhi were bundled out for 213 with 10 balls to spare. Jagrit Anand (69) tried to take Delhi as far as possible but disciplined Services bowlers, well supported by their fielders, made it tough to score. The asking rate kept rising and the young Delhi batsmen couldn’t cope with the pressure, though their intent was admirable.
At one point it looked like Delhi would run away with the match easily as they reduced Services to 36 for 3 in 12.3 overs, but Yashpal (75) and Rajat (105 not out) played brilliant innings to bail their team out of trouble. If the resolve these two batsmen showed was commendable, the same can’t be said for Delhi, especially after some senseless decisions by skipper Gautam Gambhir.
Parvinder Awana, presently Delhi’s best medium-pacer, bowled seven overs for just 17 runs at the start of the innings but Gambhir, quite inexplicably, didn’t use him in the death overs. Given that a bowler can bowl a maximum of 12 overs in an innings, Awana could bowl another five overs. Instead the skipper persisted with part-time spinners Milind Kumar and Yogesh Nagar, who together bowled seven overs for 56 runs.
Brief Scores
Services: 257 for 5 in 50 overs (Rajat Paliwal 105*; Sumit Narwal 2/40) beat Delhi: 213 all out in 48.2 overs (Jagrit Anand 69; Suraj Yadav 2/44, Avishek Sinha 2/29) by 44 runs.