Rishabh Pant congratulates teammates for semi-final victory against Bengal

The Ranji Trophy semi-final fixture between Delhi and Bengal witnessed a lot of drama before the 7-time champions, Delhi secured a crushing inning and 26-run win in Pune. The team from the national capital ulminated their first innings with a score of 398 on Day 3 in response to Bengal’s 286. They began their second essay trailing by 112 runs. However, the Manoj Tiwary-led team collapsed in a heap to lose their first four wickets for just 39 runs.

Top scorer in the second inning Sudip Chatterjee (21) tried to hold things together before he fell to Navdeep Saini. Only four other batsmen reached double-digit scores. Navdeep and Kulwant Khejroliya bagged eight scalps between them to secure Delhi an emphatic victory and to march their way into the final. Bengal could muster a measly 86 in their second knock.

Delhi have now progressed to the summit clash. They last won the championship in 2008. They will meet either Vidarbha or Karnataka in the final and aim to win the coveted title after a wait of nine long years.

Following the victory, Delhi skipper Rishabh Pant took to his Twitter handle to congratulate the team. He posted a team photo and captioned it saying, “Great performance by the entire team…extremely proud of everyone’s performance Just one more match to go boys…@GautamGambhir #kunalchandela #dhruvshorey #nitishrana #himmatsingh #manansharma #vikastokas #navdeepsaini #vikasmishra #kulwantkhejroliya

You can see the Tweet below

Mohammed Shami’s six-wicket haul provided Bengal with a slim chance

Earlier, Shami’s six-wicket haul gave Bengal a slim chance of bouncing back as Delhi lost their last seven wickets for 118 runs. Gautam Gambhir was patience personified while unheralded Kunal Chandela showed maturity beyond years as their twin tons took Delhi to a commanding position.

However, it was the Bengal speedster who provided the much-needed breakthrough after dismissing Gambhir on what proved to be the final delivery of Day 2. With Bengal scoring a below par 286 in their first essay, they were sure to concede first innings lead. The only positive for Bengal was the final session where Delhi scored only 51 runs and lost three wickets.