Gautam Gambhir succumbs to lazy running against Himachal Pradesh

Delhi, captained by Nitish Rana, is in a commanding position in their opening match of the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy against Himachal Pradesh at Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi. After scoring 317, the hosts bowled their opponents out for 223 and therefore garnered a lead of 96 runs. They also have dominated in the second innings. However, luck hasn’t favoured one of their players in Gautam Gambhir.

The 37-year-old scored 44 and 49 runs in both the innings and missed out on notching a couple of well-deserved centuries on both the instances. Left-arm spinner Mayank Dagar nipped him out in the first innings. He had the chance of making amends and rack a fifty in the second innings, but unfortunately, the experienced campaigner was caught short of his crease one run shy of the milestone.

Dhawan runs Gambhir out

The incident occurred in the first ball of the 20th over. Fast bowler Rishi Dhawan churned out a full-length delivery and right-handed batsman Hiten Dalal turned the ball on to the leg side and raced off to complete two runs. The fielder at mid-wicket chased down the leather by making a diving stop. However, he didn’t take much time in releasing the ball, sitting on one knee.

Another fieldsman ran in from the deep, but he didn’t have to collect the ball. The throw came in at the bowler’s end where Gambhir was heading. Dhawan wasn’t behind the stumps but made sure that he took the bails off as soon as the throw came in. Gambhir didn’t make a whole-hearted effort to make his ground. The veteran snuck his bat through pretty casually and Dhawan made an appeal.

The decision went upstairs where third umpire Abhijit Deshmukh had to make a tough tricky call. Replays showed that Gambhir’s bat was on the line. The TV umpire had a close look at it for quite a while and eventually ruled the decision in favour of the visiting team. Gambhir had to make the long walk back and quite expectantly, Dhawan and Himachal Pradesh were ecstatic.

Here is the video

pic.twitter.com/wmYlq3dBj9

— Mushfiqur Fan (@NaaginDance) November 14, 2018

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