Gujarat stifle Delhi for maiden crown

Parthiv Patel led from front with a century while R.P. Singh and Jasprit Bumrah struck in tandem in Gujarat’s 139-run win over Delhi in the title clash of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, here on Monday.

Setting up a competitive 273 courtesy man of the match Parthiv’s 105 (119b, 10x4) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Delhi collapsed to 134 as Singh (4/42) and Bumrah (5/28) powered Gujarat to their maiden triumph with aplomb.

For Delhi, Pawan Negi (57, 47b, 9x4, 1x6) and Unmukt Chand (33, 48, 6x4) showed some fight as the rest capitulated.

In chase of the target, Delhi were quickly on the back foot with veteran Singh’s late in-swing sending Rishabh Pant’s stumps flying on the very first ball. One down Shikhar Dhawan, who could have made most of the match before departing to Australia for the limited-over series, handed a sitter to Manprit Juneja at covers. Delhi were reeling at 11/2.

In his fourth game of the tournament, former India spearhead R.P. Singh, who replaced Hardik Patel, had Gautam Gambhir caught at slips and also had Milind Kumar trapped leg before for naught to make it 31/4.

With Singh packing the top four, fellow pacer Bumrah joined the party to run havoc piercing through the middle-order. Unmukt showed resistance before an inside edge of Bumrah cleaned up his stumps.

As the required runs climbed to eight, Negi threw his bat around in the company of Ishant Sharma to help Delhi cross the three-figure mark. Bumrah yorked Ishant while Negi began to bludgeon Gujarat bowlers around the park to entertain the crowd.

Along with Navdeep Saini, Negi added 34 runs for the 10th wicket before Bumrah completed his five-wicket haul to seal Delhi’s fate.

Earlier, Parthiv’s decision to bat first could’ve backfired facing a lethal Delhi bowling attack. Despite playing just once at the venue prior to the final turned out to be a smart judgment from the Gujarat skipper.

If not for Priyank Panchal’s half-hearted shot that dragged Navdeep Saini on to his stumps and Ishant’s inswinger that had Bhargav Merai plumb the Delhi bowlers hardly had anything to cherish during the first Power Play that accounted for 44 runs.

From then on, the motley crowd cheered on as Parthiv and Rujul Bhatt made a mockery of Delhi bowling accumulating 149 runs off 160 balls for the third wicket to lay a solid foundation.

Cheekily playing late to square of the wicket on most occasions, the duo kept the scoreboard ticking as Delhi bowlers were sent on a leather hunt.