NEW DELHI: Jyotsnil Singh walked out to bat on Saturday morning with intent — Baroda were not going to do anything fancy and let Delhi come back into the game on Day Two of their Ranji Trophy game here at the Airforce Sports Complex. Singh batted the entire 74 overs bowled on the day, added 91 runs to his overnight score of 124 and remained unbeaten on 215 as Baroda posted 400/5 at stumps to virtually kill Delhi’s chances of making it to the next round.
The pitch had become dull, docile and sow on the second day. Like the opening day, Ishant Sharma got an early wicket when he dismissed overnight batter Shashwat Rawat in the first over of the day.
Soon, Pranshu Vijayaran got the wicket of captain Vishnu Solanki. But Baroda’s approach was simple. They were not going to barter wickets for run rate. Shot-making was tough on the pitch. Balls stopped on batters and there was barely any pace to work with.
Singh showed great temperament and decided to grind it out throughout the day. He wasn’t going to throw away his wicket after scoring a century. With every defence and controlled nudges for singles, he gave a glimpse of his insatiable hunger to bat long.
The Delhi batters, slogging away in the field on Saturday, would have done well to learn from the application shown by Singh. For Delhi, Vijayran put in a spirited show with his medium pace. He picked up a couple of wickets when the Baroda batters hardly looked like going after the bowling.
It was very clear that Baroda, who are sitting at the top of the table in Group D, had understood that this pitch could at best produce a one-innings match. Taking the first-innings lead would help them pull away from the rest in the group and make it to the knockout.
Led by Jyotsnil, all the batters put their heads down and worked towards keeping Delhi on the field for as long as possible.
With no turn on offer and the pitch slowing down, the Delhi leadership will be questioning the decision to bowl first.
