Ranji Trophy match interrupted as car drives into the field of play

In one of the most bizarre incidents, Day 3 of the fourth round of the Ranji Trophy match between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh the play being interrupted as a man drove his car into the ground and even got onto the pitch. It is an important fixture between both the teams at Air Force Sports Complex in Palam ‘A’ ground in New Delhi. There was a major security lapse as the man uninterrupted reached the 22 yards.

Identified as Girish Sharma, the man claims to have not seen any security and that he was merely lost. However, according to the reports, it was a deliberate attempt as he continued to drive over the pitch despite repeated attempts by match officials and players to stop him. A number of international players like Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Ishant Sharma and Rishabh Pant were in action when the incident happened.

With just 20 minutes left for stumps on Day 3, the match had to be extended by half an hour to recover the overs lost due to the issue. The match referee examined the pitch and made sure no damage was caused before deeming it fit to resume play. On the final day, the game is scheduled to start at 9:15 am.

Match status

Talking about the match proceedings, Uttar Pradesh were 224/7 at stumps with Akshdeep Nath batting on 110 not out alongside Imtiaz Ahmed. UP who narrowly managed to gain a first-innings lead were leading by 246 runs at the end of the day’s play.

There was another controversy surrounding the Delhi team in their first game as they accused Assam of bowling with a slow over rate where they bowled just 7 overs out of the 15 mandatory overs in the last hour of play. Delhi fell short of victory and blamed Assam for being unsporting.

The match between Uttar Pradesh and Delhi which was supposed to take place at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground was shifted to the Palam Ground, as India and New Zealand locked horns for the first T20I at Kotla.