He retained his calm after being jeered off the field by the unruly but typical fans at the Ferozeshah Kotla. Virender Sehwag chatted up a few of his friends, but kept his distance from the media.
His day, like most of his other Team India mates playing at other venues, was bad — just four runs came from his blade and that included a mistimed swipe that looped up high and fell in between the bowler and long-off and surviving a caught behind appeal within that seven-ball stay.
The bowling lacked spark, going for 31 in four and getting hit into the stands twice and once flat on the sightscreen. He let go a boundary between his legs, and worse, Delhi lost to Himachal Pradesh fair and square under his captaincy by seven wickets. His other Friend in Blue — Yuvraj Singh — couldn’t make it for Punjab in the day’s second match due to fever, but Punjab nevertheless sneaked out a narrow 13-run victory.
Delhi won the toss and opted to bat. Gautam Gambhir went early and forced his opening partner, Shikhar Dhawan, to show early restraint. Dhawan ensured that Virat Kohli looked comfortable at the other end before going on a rampage — hitting five consecutive fours in one over from Vikramjeet Malik. But just when the innings looked like gaining momentum, he was run out.
In came Sehwag, and the next 13 minutes were a whole-hearted struggle to re-establish his reputation. It finally failed off a delivery from Sarandeep, caught-behind. But what really set the hosts back was the fall of wickets at regular intervals, most off to shots high on ambition and less on conviction.
Kohli’s 35 runs and a quickfire 21 off 13 balls, including one six, from Punit Bisht late in the order propelled Delhi to a defendable-looking 136. Off-spinner Nischal Gaur snapped five wickets for just 28.
But the hosts’ bowling never left them in contention. Left-arm seamer Pradeep Sangwan had pace but lacked maturity as Sandeep Sharma took him on with four boundaries from five deliveries. At the other end, Ishant Sharma looked nippy but couldn’t provide any breakthroughs. Despite Sandeep Sharma running himself out on 45, HP cruised along. Ashish Nehra opted out due to personal reasons at the last-minute.
In the afternoon, Haryana dominated Punjab for long periods, especially after packing off the top-order, but the latter played the critical stages more effectively. Only Dinesh Mongia stood tall among the ruins of self-destruction by his teammates with a 28 off 26 balls on a wicket where shot-making wasn’t easy. A few lusty blows from VRV Singh, who remained unbeaten on 22 helped Punjab post 126 for 9 in their 20 overs, with former India seamer Joginder Sharma picking three wickets.
Haryana, on the other hand, never looked like coming out with a plan. Their openers failed to take advantage of the six-over field restriction and the innings started coming apart from knee-jerk reactions from the batters. Joginder’s two sixes off Reetinder Sodhi came too late and he perished in the next over trying to accelerate. Punjab eventually won by 12 runs.