The Kotla wicket and the run torrents always go hand in hand. So, it was no surprise that the two best teams on view from the zone put their best foot forward to up the ante in their Ranji one-day clash on Thursday. On the eve of the match, the coaches of both Delhi and Punjab had even warned how imperative it was for the top-order to fire if they fancied any chance of a win. Even that was not a big surprise because, they were usual pre-match talks that the coaches indulged in.But what came as a huge surprise was the way Delhi chased down a seemingly challenging 275 without losing a wicket to hand out Punjab a humiliating 10-wicket defeat. An even bigger surprise was that the hosts did it with more than six overs to spare!And there are no prizes for guessing who did it. It was none other than Aakash Chopra (130 not out) who, in the company of fast-maturing Shikhar Dhawan(139 not out) accomplished the task, throwing their bats around as one would do so in a festival match.To begin with, the duo started on a steady, cautious note. But Punjab’s bowling stalwarts VRV Singh, Gagandeep Singh, Sarbhjit Ladda and Ankur Kakkar could not breach the broad blades of the Delhi openers as they sent the fielders on a leather hunting. When spinners were brought on, they found the bats of Chopra and Dhawan becoming even broader as the duo belted them all around the park. Their flat bowling only precipitated the matter.In their 191-minute stay at the crease, Chopra sent the ball 18 times to the boundary while Shikhar did one better for his 19 fours. Both completed their centuries in style though Chopra, who is in the best form of his life, made it two in a row. No doubt, they were helped in their cause by a belter of a wicket. Yet, what was commendable was the way the duo approached the huge Punjab target. Earlier, Ravinder Singh and Uday Kaul scored 64 each and Ankur Kakkar scored 59 for Punjab. But it was only in the later part of the innings that one got to see some fireworks from VRV Singh, who smashed two huge sixes and three boundaries to score 30 off 16 balls. For Delhi, Amit Bhandari was the pick of the bowlers with the figures of 10-43-2. Delhi now face Himachal in their third match on Saturday.Brief Scores: Punjab 274 (Ravinder Singh 64, Udal Kaul 64, Ankur Kakkar 59, VRV Singh 30; Amit Bhandari 2/43) lost to Delhi 277/0 (Aakash Chopra 130, Shikhar Dhawan 139).
