Kohli’s maiden ton puts Delhi on top

Remember, remember the Fifth of November’. That’s for Guy Fawkes’ Day and that busted attempt to blow up English...

‘Remember, remember the Fifth of November’. That’s for Guy Fawkes’ Day and that busted attempt to blow up English Parliament. Not that there is any similarity with that ‘deed’, but Virat Kohli will also want to remember this day for the rest of his life. The nineteen-year-old give himself the best birthday present by scoring his maiden Ranji Trophy Hundred at the Ferozeshah Kotla against Rajasthan here today.

His innings—combined with the ones from Rajat Bhatia and Mitthun Manhas—meant that the hosts are now comfortably placed at 317 for the loss of four wickets at the end of Day Two of their super league match. Their efforts today meant that many skeptics, who had written off this Delhi squad before this match, would be eating their words now.

Tomorrow they will try to consolidate their position by trying to play out a session that and then give themselves at least 130 overs to clean out the visitors for an outright victory.

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Judging from the scream he let out after scoring his century, it was pretty evident that it was special to Virat in more ways than one. His previous highest, 90, was against Karnataka on December 19 last year. His father had passed away that day, but he stayed resilient and saved Delhi from a collapse against the southerners.

“I dedicate this hundred to my father. That 90 was special, but there is nothing like a century. Last season I had good starts but could not convert them into big scores. I changed that today and it’s good to have runs to your name in the beginning of the season.

Earlier, Delhi began on their overnight 5 for no loss to strengthen their position by the day end. If yesterday was a day of tumbling wickets then today was a run feast.

While Kohli was exquisite with his strokeplay — scoring comfortably almost all round the ground — skipper Manhas struggled to his 86. It seemed that the Delhi skipper had the early jitters and that’s probably why the ball found his edge on more occasions than one. Had it not been for the sloppy fielding—he was dropped thrice on zero, six and 48— his score would have read a bit different today.The ordeal didn’t end for the visitors as they also dropped Virat when he was on 64. He had nicked one towards Shafiq Khan at second slip.

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Brief scores: Delhi (1st) innings: 119; (2nd innings): 317/4 in 90.3 overs (Virat Kohli 106, Mitthun Manhas batting 86, Rajat Bhatia batting 65) lead Rajasthan (1st innings): 85 by 322 runs.