New Delhi, Feb 1 Off-spinner Shivam Sharma took a superb five-wicket haul as Delhi thrashed Railways by an innings and 19 runs to win their final Ranji Trophy Group D league stage match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday.
Though Delhi got a bonus point with the thumping win on return to their home ground, it wasn’t enough for them to enter Ranji Trophy knockouts. On a pitch where the ball was keeping low, Delhi got the win inside three days, thanks to Shivam’s brilliant spell along with Railways batters’ being insipid with their shot selection.
In what is his return to playing first-class cricket in the domestic season after almost four years, Shivam picked 5-33 in 11 overs, his third five-for in red-ball cricket, as Railways were bundled out for 114 in 30.5 overs of their second innings.
In the morning, resuming from 334/7, Sumit Mathur began with a boundary to reach his 80s, with Siddhant Sharma giving him good company. Shortly after Delhi crossed the 100-run mark in terms of lead, Siddhant Sharma was caught in the slip region off Kunal Yadav, while Mathur was trapped lbw by Himanshu Sangwan for 86.
Himanshu picked the final wicket of Delhi’s innings by castling Money Grewal with a four to finish with 4-55 and end Delhi’s innings on 374 runs in 106.4 overs, as the hosts’ clinched a handy 133-run lead.
For their second innings, Railways were forced to shuffle their batting order as Anchit Yadav was unavailable to bat due to suffering an injury while fielding in Delhi’s first innings. Delhi struck quickly in the second over as left-arm pacer Siddhant trapped Railways captain Suraj Ahuja lbw with a nip-backer.
Vivek Singh and Mohammad Saif hit five boundaries between themselves before Shivam Sharma took the duo out. While Vivek was caught out for 12 at point, Saif lofted straight to mid-on and fall for 31. Navdeep Saini produced the wow moment of the game when he downed Bhargav Merai’s off and middle stumps.
There was a three-minute interruption in the session’s proceedings in the 18th over, when three spectators broke the tight security cordon on the boundary rope and came onto the field to touch Virat Kohli's feet. It took more than 20 security personnels to come from all areas of the ground and take the three intruders away.
After Delhi reduced Railways to 74/4 at lunch, they had success on third ball of the second session when Money Grewal trapped first innings top run-scorer Upendra Yadav lbw, followed by Shivam dismissing Karn Sharma in the same fashion and then castling Himanshu.
Shivam completed his five-wicket haul by having Rahul Sharma caught at point, while captain Ayush Badoni finished off the game by having Kunal Yadav miscue to point, as Delhi completed a win with a bonus point to end their 2024/25 domestic season on a high.
Brief Scores: Railways 241 in 67.4 overs and 114/9 in 30.5 overs (Mohammad Saif 31, Ayan Chaudhari 30 not out; Shivam Sharma 5-33) lost to Delhi 374 in 106.4 overs (Ayush Badoni 99, Sumit Mathur 86; Himanshu Sangwan 4-55, Kunal Yadav 3-104) by an innings and 19 runs
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