Delhi defeated Himachal Pradesh by eight wickets in their U-22 C.K. Nayudu Trophy match at the St Stephen’s ground on Monday. Himachal Pradesh showed tremendous improvement in their second innings though as Vikas Sharma (73) and Rishi Dhawan (86), along with opener Minesh Thakur (50), put up a strong fight on the third day.
Dhawan stood like a barrier against the Delhi bowlers but he fell short of the triple figure and failed to save the match and the hosts earned five points. Apart from debutant Kapil Yadav’s six-wicket haul and Narender Singh’s show with bat, Delhi’s wicketkeeper-captain Rahul Yadav played an important role.
Yadav took seven catches and scored an unbeaten 25 in the second inning including five boundaries. There were a couple of disciplinary issues.
The umpires summoned Delhi’s Ankur Jhulka and Rahul Yadav at the end of the play. HT learnt that Jhulka was called for showing his bat to the umpire while Yadav was called up for over-appealing on different occasions.
Brief scores: Himachal Pradesh 106 and 291 (V. Sharma 73, R. Dhawan 86; K. Yadav 3/80) lost to Delhi 328 and 70/2 (R. Yadav 25*, N. Singh 19*).