Delhi, chasing 116 for a victory over Haryana, had reached 92 for three in 15 overs. Comfortable silence dominated a slightly hot morning at the Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium. It seemed Delhi would get the win it needed to maintain a strong qualification challenge in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy North Zone Twenty20 tournament.
Five overs later, the silence had become eerie. It was only broken by the cheery shouts of the Haryana players. Delhi had lost by a run. The stunning result had much to do with the host’s sudden loss of belief. Haryana, contrastingly, never thought it had lost. Ashish Hooda’s final over saw only a single scored off the bat as Delhi was denied the six runs it needed.
On the brink of exitAfter consecutive losses, Gautam Gambhir's side stands on the brink of exit — eight points from four matches.
Himachal Pradesh has already booked its spot in the final round after winning all its encounters. Punjab is four points behind thanks to a sole defeat in four games. On Saturday, the latter could qualify as well if it bests the former.
Even if it doesn’t, its superior net run rate will ensure that Delhi will have to win by a significant margin. Moreover, Punjab will have the advantage of knowing what is required to qualify as its match will start only after the Delhi-Services encounter is over.
Delhi has nobody but itself to blame for its predicament. After Haryana chose to field, the home team reduced the former to 19 for four within four overs.
With the new ball moving a bit, Gambhir was enthused enough to field four slips, a gully and short point.
However, Sandeep Godara and Sachin Rana enacted a minor rescue before both were dismissed in consecutive overs with the score at 61 in 13 overs.
This brought Jayant Yadav and Amit Mishra together at the crease.
The duo went on to provide respectability to Haryana's total.
In its reply, Delhi found a 38-run opening partnership between Gambhir and Unmukt Chand. However, once the skipper departed, none of the others could give their side the decisive advantage.
Haryana’s spin trio of Mishra, Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal was particularly successful in strangling the run flow. As the match approached its denouement, the control suffocated Delhi.
The scores:
Haryana 115 for seven in 20 overs (Jayant Yadav 31, Parvinder Awana two for 15, Pawan Suyal two for 15, Manan Sharma two for 27) bt Delhi 114 for seven in 20 overs (Unmukt Chand 38, Ashish Hooda two for nine, Yuzvendra Chahal two for 36).
Himachal Pradesh 159 for four in 20 overs (Ankush Bains 54, Rishi Dhawan 42 not out, Bipul Sharma 31 not out, Umar Nazir two for 44) bt Jammu and Kashmir 122 for seven in 20 overs (Parveez Rasool 31, Aditya Singh 40, Pankaj Jaswal two for 13, Rahul Singh two for 19).
Services 123 for seven in 20 overs (Vikas Hathwala 32, Harbhajan Singh two for 20) lost to Punjab 124 for two in 17.1 overs (Jaskaran Sohi 25, Manan Vohra 60 not out, Mandeep Singh 35 not out).
