The Ranji Trophy 2024 Championship began on January 05. Puducherry marks its historic win against the Delhi Champions this Monday as they celebrate a massive 9-wicket win in the opponent’s home ground Arun Jaitley Stadium in the opening fixture of Elite Group D while chasing a mere target of 50 runs.
Ranji Trophy 2024 Opening fixtures
The Rani Trophy is a domestic red-ball Cricket tournament that is played annually and is organized by the Board of Control for Cricket in India( BCCI). Various teams represent their regional or state associations. There are total 5 groups amongst which 4 are Elite Groups and one Plate Group with 8 Teams in Elite Groups and 6 Teams in Plate Group.
Delhi and Puducherry were playing their first match against each other as an opening match of Group D in the Championship. Puducherry won the toss and decided to bowl. In the first inning of the match, Young Captain Yash Dhull and Lakshay Thareja opened for Delhi. The U-19 Captain got out after scoring 2 runs after being bowled by Gaurav Yadav. After the second fall of the wicket in the form of Thareja’s LBW by Abin Mathews, Delhi was standing at 30/2 in 13.1 overs.
Gaurav Yadav takes 7 wickets
The magical spell of Gaurav Yadav and Abin Mathew along with Saurabh Yadav let to the collapse of Delhi’s batting order. The Delhi Team got all out at 148 runs in 62.5 overs. With sending two players back to the pavilion without scoring a single, Gaurav Yadav wrote a historic spell by launching a 7-wicket haul.
For Puducherry’s first inning they had the target of 149 runs to surpass in order to dominate over the opponents again. The opening partnership of 41 runs between Akash Anand Kargave and Jay Pande, Puducherry began with a smooth shift before the first fall of wicket. Delhi got its first wicket in the form of Jay Pande’s LBW by Himanshu Chauhan.
Puducherry scores 244 runs
The quick fall of another wicket by the legendary Ishant Sharma in 18.1 overs came as Kargave’s catch out. Puducherry was on 65/2 when a grand partnership of 80 runs between Santosh Ratnaparkhe and Paras Dogra helped them to boost their victory. With the fall of Paras Dogra’s wicket after fetching 31 runs by Nadeep Saini in 39.1 overs, Puducherry managed to score 145/3. Ratnaparkhe’s 60 runs and Krisha Pandey’s 44 along with other players helped to put a good score of 244 for Puducherry.
In the second innings of Delhi, Abin Mathews launched his five-wicket haul. The fiery spell began from the LBW of Yash Dhull after he scored 23 runs. Gaurav Yadhav once again took 3 wickets with an economy of 2.94. The whole team got out after scoring 145 runs collectively in 46.4 overs.
With a mere run chase of 50 runs, A. A. Kargave and Jay Pande showed their winning intent and scored 44 runs before the first wicket. Kargave got out at 23 runs and M. Viknesh entered the pitch to add some finishing touches to the already-won game. With a boundary for 4 runs, Puducherry won a massive 9-wicket match against Delhi in their home ground.
Gaurav Yadav became Player of the Match
Gaurav Yadav became the Player of the Match for his exceptional 7/49 and 3/49.He has been the part of the Madhya Pradesh’s winning squad of 2021-22. Right after the match was over, Yash Dhull was dismissed as a Captain after a miserable loss. Himmat Singh will now lead the team while Ayush Badoni will support the squad as Vice-Captain. The selectors took this decision to give the young talent some time and solely focus on his batting as he’s the opener of the team said the head coach of the team.
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