Young Ishan Kishan produced an innings of savage brilliance (162 batting) as Jharkhand wrested advantage against Delhi at the end of opening day’s play of the Ranji Trophy Group B match at the KCA-St. Xavier’s College ground here on Saturday.
Walking in after the Delhi seamers had reduced Jharkhand to 80 for four, the 18-year-old Ishan took the fight to the enemy camp with his audacious stroke play.
Ishan clubbed six sixes apart from 14 boundaries in his 213-ball knock to maul the Delhi attack. Delhi’s fielding was also awful with Ishan, Kaushal Singh and Ishank Jaggi being given a life each.
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Ishan was involved in two century stands — 116 runs for the fifth wicket with Ishank and 120 runs for the sixth with Kaushal — that carried his team to safety.
The pitch eased out as the sun came out after lunch and the Delhi attack lost its sting. Ishank started scoring freely against the medium-pacers while Ishan took on the spinners.
However, Jaggi attempted a cross-batted heave against Varun Sood and only managed an edge which was snapped up by Unmukt Chand in the slips.
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Ishan then prospered in the company of Kaushal, who also chanced his arm to score the odd boundary, as the sixth-wicket pair took the match away from Delhi.
Ishan changed gears after tea and was particularly severe on medium-pacer Vikas Tokas. A short-arm jab for six off Vikas was the stand-out shot from the young batsmen.
Earlier, Unmukt won the toss under an overcast sky and decided to field. Tokas provided the perfect start having Virat Singh caught behind in the second over of the day.
Praytush Singh counter-attacked and rode his luck, but skipper Saurabh Tiwary looked ill at ease before top-edging a pull to be caught behind off Subodh Bhati.
A lifter from Bhatti forced Pratyush to fend the ball towards gully where Shorey took a low catch.
“The ball was moving when I came in. Jaggi asked me to be patient and I started playing my shots when the wicket eased a bit.
“I am happy with the knock which I can say is my best so far. But there is still a lot of work to be done. I must bat longer and pile up a good total tomorrow,” said Ishan.
Delhi coach Bhaskar Pillai was disappointed with his bowlers, but complimented Ishan.
“We could have bowled better. We gave away far too many easy runs. No doubt Ishan batted superbly. But I think Pratyush also played a crucial knock,” he said.
The scores:
Jharkhand — 1st innings: Anand Singh c Pant b Awana 12, Virat Singh c Pant b Tokas 0, Pratyush Singh c Dhruv b Bhatti 45, Saurabh Tiwari c Pant b Bhatti 9, Ishank Jaggi c Unmukt b Sood 55, Ishan Kishan (batting) 162, Kaushal Singh c Unmukt b Sood 39, Shabaz Nadeem (batting) 19; Extras (nb-8, w-2, b-4, lb-4): 18. Total (for six wickets in 88 overs): 359.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-42, 3-75, 4-80, 5-196, 6-316.
Delhi bowling: Parvinder Awana 15-4-47-1, Vikas Tokas 17-1-98-1, Subodh Bhatti 19-5-53-2, Nitish Rana 4-1-14-0, Manan Sharma 7-0-30-0, Varun Sood 14-1-48-2, Dhruv Shorey 1-0-8-0.
Toss: Delhi.