da wazamba： Two contrasting cricketers made similar centuries as Delhi inched towardstaking the all-important first-innings lead in their Ranji Trophy matchagainst Tamil Nadu
The Bulletin by Anand Vasu in Delhi25-Nov-2006
Scorecard
‘Shikhar Dhawan looked to hit the boundaries, mostly square of the wicket on the off side, with weight firmly on the back foot, capitalising on any width on offer’ © AFP
Two contrasting cricketers made similar centuries as Delhi inched towardstaking the all-important first-innings lead in their Ranji Trophy matchagainst Tamil Nadu. Shikhar Dhawan with 106 and Rajat Bhatia, unbeaten on101, helped generously by Vijay Dahiya, who chipped in with a breezyunbeaten half-century, pushed Delhi to 309 for 5 at the end of the thirdday, leaving themselves only 39 more to capture the first innings lead inthis match.Dhawan is tall, upright at the crease, and bats left-handed, while Bhatiais stocky, compact in his approach and right-handed. Dhawan looked to hitthe boundaries, mostly square of the wicket on the off side, with weightfirmly on the back foot, capitalising on any width on offer. Bhatia,certainly no mug with the bat but by no means outrageously gifted,understood his role perfectly and looked to stay on the front foot as muchas possible on a wicket that continued to show signs of variable bounce.When the day began with Delhi on 54 for 2, it appeared that Tamil Nadu hadthings under control. After only five runs were added to the overnightscore Vijaykumar Yomahesh trapped Mithun Manhas in front of the stumps.Then, Virat Kohli, making his debut, became Yomahesh’s third victim as heedged one to the keeper. At 75 for 4, Tamil Nadu had Delhi just where theywanted them.Then, slowly but surely, the game began to slip out of their grasp.Surprisingly S Badrinath, the captain, showed little faith in his debutantleft-arm spinner, C Suresh, and barely employed him all day, using him foronly four overs, even as the mediumpacers toiled hard with little reward.With no results coming through, and a couple of close shouts for lbw beingturned down, the spirit of the mediumpacers flagged, and with it went theaccuracy. Dhawan was given too much width outside the off, and he tookfull toll, cutting and driving through point as left-hand batsmen tend todo with ease.Bhatia, known for his commonsense in cricketing circles, just bedded down andrefused to be dismissed. He attempted no extravagant shots, although acouple of punches straight back down the ground would have done anybatsman proud. He showed the full face of the bat to the ball, and refusedto be tempted into playing a horizontal bat shot even when the ball wassent through wide.From 75 for 4, Bhatia and Dhawan nursed the score along to 208, adding 133for the fifth wicket, before the second new ball gave Yomahesh his fourthwicket as Dhawan hit one uppishly to Hemang Badani. Dhawan’s 106 had comeon the back of a rather ordinary previous season, and proved to becritical in the context of the game.Wicketkeepers tend to be annoyingly cheeky batsmen, and Dahiya is noexception. While it seems like he’s always giving you a chance by playingwith an open face, he’s merely playing to his strengths, and Tamil Naducertainly missed a trick on the day by not putting out a fielder atthird-man early on. Dahiya slashed three boundaries down to the vacantthird-man region and then followed it up with two crisp cover-drives, andall of a sudden the runs began to come easily.Bhatia had played the grafter’s hand all along, but the infusion ofDahiya, and the momentum that came with the manner in which he rattled offboundaries, gave Delhi a big boost as they neared Tamil Nadu’s score.Bhatia brought up his fifth first-class century – his fourth for Delhi,and second against Tamil Nadu – and his former team-mates could onlygrudgingly applaud.Meanwhile Dahiya was celebrating a milestone of his own, having reachedhis half-century, and was unbeaten on 51 from only 78 balls, with 9 fours.No-one else who had made 50 or more in the game had scored at a strikerate of even 50 runs per 100 balls. The manner in which the ball sped awayto the fence made you wonder if somehow the outfield had suddenlyquickened overnight, but that could not possibly have happened without thegrass being cut, and that’s not something that’s done in the middle of agame.Tamil Nadu will make one final push on the fourth morning, with theirmediumpacers, to defend 347, but unless Delhi’s batsmen commit suicide,it’s hard to see five wickets falling for 39 runs on this pitch.