More than 40 years ago, Delhi defeated Mumbai (then Bombay) for the first time in the history of the Ranji Trophy. The win came in the final of the tournament in the 1979-80 season when a Bishan Singh Bedi-led unit outclassed Sunil Gavaskar-led Bombay at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium (now Arun Jaitley Stadium) in New Delhi. After that Bombay win, Delhi featured in the finals of 80-81, 81-82, 83-84, 84-85, 85-86, 86-87, 88-89 and 89-90 seasons and completely dominated the 1980s. Three of Delhi’s seven Ranji titles came in that decade.
Unlike the Delhi-Mumbai contests of the past, the build-up to the Round 6 fixture of the 2022-23 season was a lopsided one. Mumbai came into this clash as the heavy favourites and had the star power in the Ajinkya Rahane-led unit featuring the likes of Prithvi Shaw, Sarfaraz Khan and Shams Mulani. The last four days however saw a young Delhi unit, under stand-in captain Himmat Singh as Yash Dhull was recovering from “viral fever", punch above their weight and outclass the visitors.
Electing to field, Delhi made early inroads and dominated the Mumbai unit before a rescue act by Sarfaraz Khan (125) propelled visitors to a fighting 293 in the first innings. The combined First-Class experience of this bowling unit before this fixture was just 12 matches and they bowled with a lot of heart, in helpful conditions, to keep the likes of Shaw and Rahane quiet.
If it was Pranshu Vijayran with the ball on the opening day, Vaibhav Rawal (114) and Himmat Singh (85) combined well in the first innings to take the lead and then it was Divij Mehra, playing only his second FC game, who took a fifer and put the visitors on the mat. The modest target was overhauled with ease and the Himmat-led unit ended the long wait for victory over Mumbai with a thumping eight-wicket win.
A forgettable season ending on a good note
Delhi are out of the knockouts race but have shown a lot of fight in their last two Ranji fixtures. The young unit managed to take the first-innings lead over Andhra in their last fixture and have now registered an outright win over Mumbai in their Round 6 contest. They have 11 points from six games and would be gunning for a win in their last match, an away fixture, against Hyderabad starting January 24.
The side was hit by injuries to their fast bowlers from the opening game and the regulars Navdeep Saini, Simarjeet Singh and Ishant Sharma were missing from action throughout the red-ball season. In their absence, the youngsters are putting in the hard yards and getting better with every game.
Dhruv Shorey continues to top the run-getters chart in the competition with 806 runs in the six games and he is getting good support from Vaibhav Rawal (396 runs) and Himmat Singh (362 runs). The player who has shown a lot of courage and will to fight this season is young spinner Hrithik Shokeen. The bowling all-rounder has walked out to bat at No.3 on tricky surfaces and has accumulated 274 runs from four matches. His 68* against Saurashtra was probably one of his finest as the right-hander rescued Delhi from 10/7 and pushed them to 133.
Trimmed squads
After President Rohan Jaitley’s scathing email to the DDCA Apex Council and CAC on selection matters, the selection duties are now being taken care of by the CAC featuring Nikhil Chopra, Gursharan Singh and Reema Malhotra. The jumbo squads of 20 and 22 have now been trimmed to the permissible 15 (+1 wicketkeeper backup).
The President himself was at the Arun Jaitley Stadium this morning to see the side register a historic win and spoke to players at length after the game ended. Customary photographs followed and smiles returned to DDCA corridors after a season which saw very little success on the field and was marred by off-field selection issues.
DDCA Director Shyam Sharma, who watched the game for four days from the ground, was ecstatic after the win and lauded the fight put up by a very young unit.
“It was a commendable win to beat Mumbai. Nothing better than beating Mumbai. I hope the team continues to put up a strong show in the remaining match and end the season well," says Sharma.
Just like the win in the 1979-80 season, Delhi would hope this win over Mumbai starts a new chapter and the state returns to the dominating ways of the 80s. It’s been more than 15 years since Delhi last (2007-08 season) held their hands on the Ranji Trophy title and would want to end the long wait next season.
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