Ranji Trophy: Sumit Narwal shines, Rajasthan stumble

Not only did Narwal pick the key wicket of Rajasthan’s batting mainstay, his quickfire knock of unbeaten 59 in 52 balls, in which he also stitched an important 75-run stand in 82 balls with Punit Bisht, ensured Delhi finished strongly at 380/6in 91.3 overs, a handy 239-run lead over Rajasthan.

After the game got delayed by an hour, Delhi decided to go all out in order to set themselves up for an outright win. Unmukt Chand continued from where he left off the previous day and reached his century, his fifth in first-class cricket, with a cover drive off Aniket Choudhary. A message waited Chand at the drinks break. It asked him to up the ante with Mithun Manhas. The duo were on course, but after they had put on 93, Manhas was bowled by Deepak Chahar on 53. Delhi were 243/4 in 65 overs.

Clear intentions

Chand then joined hands with Rajat Bhatia and put another fifty plus stand. With Delhi looking to stretch their lead to somewhere near 250, the team management decided to promote Narwal ahead of Punit Bist following Bhatia’s dismissal. Narwal was on duty right from the word go. The left-hander edged two between the slips initially but his intent was clear. He used his crease well, and flexed his muscle to send the ball flying out of the ropes. During his stay, he hit a couple of massive sixes and got five hits to the fence. Chand’s dismissal on 146 did little to dent his aggression. Narwal hit five fours and two sixes and soon after he reached his fifty, Gambhir declared.

It was always going to be a challenge for the Rajasthan batsman to play the last session of the day. The temperature had dropped a few degrees and the ball was doing its bit off the pitch. Narwal might have went wicketless initially but he kept bowling to a line. Navdeep Saini benefitted from the other end and drew the first blood, dismissing Vineet Saxena for one. Narwal returned for his second spell in the 21st over. Bist delighted him as he had no clue to a Narwal speciality. It pitched in and moved just an inch away from him.

Narwal knew how important that wicket was. Bist has proved on numerous occasions that he can change the course of matches in the second innings. Most recent was his unbeaten ton against Saurashtra and his century in the Duleep Trophy final that had changed the complexion of the match, enabling Central to pull off a miraculous win. But on this occasion it was not to be.

Narwal’s next four overs were even more testing for both Saraf and Ashok Menaria. Narwal’s spell of 9-2-11-1 could have been better had one of his delivery not missed Menaria’s timber.

Brief scores: Rajasthan 141 & 78/2 in 31 overs (S Saraf batting 42; S Narwal 1/11). Delhi 380/6 decl in 91.3 overs (U Chand 146, S Narwal 59 n.o A Choudhary 3/81, S Gehlot 2/112).