NEW DELHI: Divij Mehra never imagined he would be close to a Ranji Trophy game this season. Two weeks ago, he was hopping flights to play for Delhi's under-25 team when he got a call that he needed to turn up at the Ferozeshah Kotla to play against Andhra.
Delhi had run out of all their frontline medium pacers. On Thursday, with his steady medium pace, he ran through perhaps the most intimidating domestic batting lineup with figures of 5/29 to put Delhi on course for their first win of the season.
At stumps, Mumbai were just 92 runs ahead with one wicket in hand. The last time Delhi won outright against Mumbai was by 240 runs in the Ranji Trophy final in April, 1980. Mumbai turned up on Day Three at the Kotla looking to counter-attack after limiting Delhi's first-innings lead to 76. The hosts were dismissed for 369 within an hour of play.
What followed was an indictment of the techniques of Prithvi Shaw, Armaan Jaffer, Musheer Khan and Sarfaraz Khan. Mehra asked wicketkeeper Anuj Rawat to stand up to the stumps, bowled in-dippers at about 120 kmph and breached the defences of Mumbai's best.
At lunch, Mumbai were 46/5 with Shaw, Musheer, Jaffer, Sarfaraz and Prasad Pawar all having been dismissed. Three out of the top six were bowled by inswingers while Shaw was trapped in front for the second time in the match. When Mehra knocked over Sarfaraz off the first ball, Mumbai must have felt the butterflies in the stomach. Skipper Ajinkya Rahane was left to do the repair work with Shams Mulani.
"I didn't expect to play Ranji Trophy this season. We had Ishant Sharma starting the season. Now, as I joined the Ranji Trophy camp, I realized I need to work on my pace too," said the 20-year-old Mehra, who stands at six feet four inches tall.
To come up against such a strong batting lineup must have been intimidating, but clear planning helped him exploit the loopholes in the Mumbai batters'technique. "We analyzed their batting. We decided to bowl tight lines and not give them any width. We were targeting the stumps. I asked the wicketkeeper to come up to the stumps because they were batting two feet outside the crease to counter the movement," Mehra said.
Delhi have landed some heavy punches at Mumbai but Mehra would know they have to clean up the last wicket soon before Tanush Kotian (batting on 48) adds some crucial runs which could put Delhi under pressure.
Brief scores: Mumbai 293 and 168/9 in 59 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 51, Tanush Kotian batting 48; Divij Mehra 5/29) vs Delhi 369 in 101. 1 overs (Vaibhav Rawal 114, Himmat Singh 85, Tushar Deshpande 4/111)
