A confident six over midwicket that landed in the stands saw Dhruv Shorey more relieved than elated, giving him his fourth First Class century in 22 games across four seasons for Delhi and ended a stream of big scores that had not turned into three-figures.
It also helped the host rack up 281 runs and declare its second innings for an overall lead of 375 against Himachal Pradesh on the third day of the Ranji trophy game here on Wednesday and give enough time for its bowlers to try and go for an outright win.
At stumps, Himachal was 44 for the loss of its captain Prashant Chopra, with Ankush Bains and Priyanshu Khanduri holding fort through the final session.
Shorey had managed 88 in the first innings before throwing away his wicket. On Wednesday, he made sure it wouldn’t happen again. Mixing aggression with prudence, he picked the right balls to play his shots using his feet and offered a straight bat to block anything that stayed low.
Pick of the bowlers
Mayank Dagar was the pick of Himachal bowlers, getting three of the four wickets that fell — Gautam Gambhir was run out, guilty of being casual in grounding his bat going for the second run — by mixing the length of his deliveries.
Shorey, though, was patient. He built useful partnerships with the other batsmen and took the lead in rotating the strike even as wickets fell at the other end after getting starts.
With the ball turning occasionally and rising up from the scattered rough spots, Himachal bowlers tried bowling down leg side to curb the scoring but Shorey used his wrists to break the shackles and avoid stagnation.
Having halted Himachal’s reply to 223 in the first innings, Delhi would have hoped to capitalise on the fading light and slightly nippy conditions post-tea but a perfect inswinger from Ishant Sharma that hit the stumps was the only success.
Shorey’s previous century had been in a lost cause against Vidarbha in the final last year. This one, though, might see him end up on the winning side, provided the Delhi bowlers manage to make quick inroads.
The scores:
Delhi — 1st innings: 317.
Himachal Pradesh— 1st innings: Priyanshu Khanduri lbw b Ishant 1, Prashant Chopra c Sood b Mishra 28, Ankush Bains c Rana b Mishra 22, Nikhil Gangta c Khejroliya b Sood 0, Sumeet Verma c Dalal b Sood 0, Akash Vashisht c Rawat b Sood 1, Ekant Sen b Khejroliya 46, Rishi Dhawan c Gambhir b Sood 64, Mayank Dagar run out 21, Pankaj Jaswal (not out) 30, Gurvinder Singh lbw b Ishant 0; Extras (b-5, lb-5): 10; Total (in 64.3 overs): 223.
Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-49, 3-50, 4-56, 5-56, 6-58, 7-153, 8-181, 9-222.
Delhi bowling: Ishant 12.3-4-40-2, Khejroliya 14-3-44-1, Mishra 21-2-65-2, Sood 15-4-53-4, Lalit 2-0-11-0.
Delhi — 2nd innings: Gautam Gambhir run out 49, Hiten Dalal b Dagar 25, Dhruv Shorey (not out) 106, Nitish Rana c Bains b Dagar 32, Himmat Singh lbw b Dagar 26, Anuj Rawat (not out) 21; Extras (w-1, b-17, lb-4): 22; Total (for four wkts. decl. in 67 overs): 281.
Fall of wickets: 1-64, 2-102, 3-164, 4-214.
Himachal Pradesh bowling: Dhawan 10-2-37-0, Jaswal 5-0-33-0, Dagar 19-3-70-3, Vashisht 12-1-42-0, Chopra 6-0-35-0, Gurvinder 15-5-43-0.
Himachal Pradesh — 2nd innings: Khanduri (batting) 22, Chopra b Ishant 1, Bains (batting) 16; Extras (b-4, lb-1): 5; Total (for one wkt. in 19 overs): 44.
Fall of wicket: 1-9.
Delhi bowling: Ishant 5-1-14-1, Khejroliya 6-1-12-0, Mishra 6-1-11-0, Sood 2-0-2-0.
