Anuj Rawat leads Delhi’s march into the semis

December 12, 2024
12:51 am

Delhi 193 for 3 (Rawat 73*, Arya 44, Dhull 42) beat Uttar Pradesh 174 (Garg 54, Prince 3-36, Suyash 2-36) by 19 runs

Perhaps the only thing that could have stopped Anuj Rawat‘s assault was the end of Delhi’s allotted overs. No matter which Uttar Pradesh bowler bowled at him in the death overs of the quarter-final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Bengaluru, the ball either went to the boundary or pinged the objects that lay beyond it.

Rawat rammed an unbeaten 73 off just 33 balls despite being on 9 from 10 at one stage. Six of his seven boundaries, and all five of his sixes, came from the 15th onwards. Delhi, who had 112 at the start of the 15th, finished with 193, before their bowlers restricted UP to 174 to book their place in the semi-final.

The fun started when Rawat deposited Vineet Panwar for a four and six each, before taking Shivam Mavi for 23 runs in the 16th over. That featured a flick to fine leg and a loft over mid-off for four each, and two carbon-copy swivel-pull sixes over fine leg. Rawat brought up his half-century off 22 balls just after whipping Bhuvneshwar Kumar for six over deep square leg. He took three more boundaries off Bhuvneshwar, before ending the innings with a six off Mavi.

In reply, UP’s chase hardly gained momentum. They managed only 18 in the first three overs, after which Priyam Garg decided to attack Simarjeet Singh. Garg lofted over Simarjeet’s head and ramped him over deep third for six each, before ending the over by going for four over cover. But Garg’s turned out to be a one-man effort, as UP slumped to 51 for 3 after seven overs.

The loudest roar from the sparse crowd, though, was reserved for when Ayush Badoni had Nitish Rana caught at long-on. The two had come head to head earlier when Rana, bowling the third ball of the 13th over of Delhi’s innings, stopped short of delivering. Badoni then backed out of Rana’s next attempt, only for the bowler to get in the batter’s way after a single was taken when the delivery was finally bowled. The umpires had to intervene to prevent things from heating up too much.

Badoni didn’t forget to give Rana a little send-off during UP’s chase, which only seemed to gather pace towards the end of the tenth over. Garg swatted and lofted Prince Yadav for four and six. He got to his fifty in the 11th over, in which Sameer Rizvi cut Suyash Sharma for four behind point.

Next over, bowled by Simarjeet, Rizvi and Garg hit three boundaries off the first four legal balls. But Simarjeet got a return catch when Garg’s attempted pull resulted in a top edge – he fell having contributed 54 out of UP’s total of 104 at that stage. Rizvi scored a quick 26, but lacked long-term partners as Delhi’s bowlers kept chipping away.

Bhuvneshwar, Mohsin Khan and Panwar provided some late entertainment by smashing five fours and two sixes between them. But the fact that UP needed their tailenders to do all this hitting to take them somewhat closer to Delhi’s total told the story of their batting on the day.