For the last couple of seasons, Unmukt has been among those fortunate players whose scores get noticed. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been scoring that frequently; often failing to convert his starts into big scores. This season, although in its early stage, Unmukt is showing good improvement in the conversion rate as he nears his second century in four innings so far.
Between the dense morning fog that wiped out the first session and the poor light in the evening that forced umpires to call the day off early, Unmukt played a determined innings of 97 runs (not out) to go with his 146 in the previous match against Rajasthan. Thanks to his 171-run stand with skipper Gautam Gambhir (66), Delhi found themselves in a commanding position with 178 for 1 in 53 overs against Gujarat, who lost most of their senior players to various injuries, on Sunday. At stumps, Sehwag was batting on 2.
Aware of the weather conditions and the playing time that it would allow, Delhi chose to bat first after winning the toss with an aim of putting up a big total and then looking to bowl the opposition out — hopefully twice. The score on day one suggests that they were fairly successful in executing their plan. The score on day one suggests that they were fairly successful in executing their plan and its centrepiece was the partnership between Delhi’s openers that neutralised the threat that Gujarat’s in-form medium pacer Rush Kalaria could have become.
Their partnership left Gujarat’s stand-in skipper Priyank Panchal, who was given the leadership responsibility after the regular skipper Parthiv Patel pulled out of the match complaining of cervical pain, wondering how to use his limited bowling options. Once the ball got old, Delhi openers started to assert their dominance. First Unmukt hit off-spinner Jesal Karia for successive sixes and then Gambhir repeated the feat off left-arm spinner Pranjal Sutaria to complete his half-century. While Gambhir slowed down after his fifty, his younger partner kept the attack on from the other end, stepping out of the crease at the slightest hint of flight. Gujarat’s only moment of celebration came when Karia deceived Gambhir with a slider and bowled him.
Brief Scores
Delhi: 178/1 in 53 overs (Unmukt Chand 97 batting, Gautam Gambhir 66, Virender Sehwag batting 2) vs Gujarat on Day 1.