Dhruv Shorey’s unbeaten double century, Delhi in strong position against Assam
Opener Dhruv Shorey struck an unbeaten double century as Delhi posted 439 in the first innings of their Ranji Trophy Group B match against Assam here on Wednesday. Dhruv came out to play ahead of yesterday’s score of 139 runs and completed the first double century of his career. In his innings, facing 315 balls, he scored an unbeaten 252 with 34 fours and two sixes. In response, Assam scored 158 runs for four wickets at the end of the day’s play. Assam’s team is still behind Delhi by 281 runs. Dhruv maintained the run pace throughout his innings.
He scored runs at a strike rate of 80. Delhi started the day at 271 for two. The team lost yesterday’s unbeaten batsman Vikas Mishra (22) early, who after scoring 11 more runs today fell victim to left-arm pacer Mrinmoy Dutta (3/79). Dhruv then preferred to keep the strike with him. He played an important role in taking the team’s score beyond 400 runs by adding 91 runs with Harshit Rana (24), who came to bat at number 11. Siddharth Sharma (3/53) dismissed Harshit to end the Delhi innings. Assam also had a bad start.
Captain Kunal Sekia returned to the pavilion after scoring just 12 runs while Rahul Hazarika was retired hurt on the score of four runs. Riyan Parag (10), Shivshankar Roy (00) and Swaroopam Purkayastha (00) also could not stay at the crease for long as Assam were reduced to 60 for four. Rishav Das (71 not out) and Gokul Sharma (39 not out), however, did not let the team suffer further setbacks till the end of the day’s play. Both have shared an unbroken 98-run partnership for the fifth wicket.
Tamil Nadu came close to taking a first-innings lead at 273 for four after bowling out Andhra for 297 in Coimbatore. Sai Sudarshan scored 113 while Baba Aparajith scored 88 for Tamil Nadu. The Tamil Nadu team is now just 24 runs behind. In another Group B match at Rajkot, Maharashtra reached 472 for seven in the first innings. Naushad Sheikh hit a century while Ankit Bawne (96), Saurabh Navale (72) and Akshay Palkar (51 not out) scored half-centuries for the team.
