The Vidarbha v Delhi Ranji Trophy 2017/18 final has started on a fighting note as Dhruv Shorey’s century and Himmat Singh’s fighting fifty has pulled Delhi out a mess and got it to a decent total by the end of the first day.
While Shorey took all the glory with his brilliant century, Vidarbha bowlers, especially Aditya Thakare and Rajneesh Gurbani did the early damage by picking wickets at regular intervals, keeping Delhi from constructing a big partnership. Only Shorey and Himmat Singh added 105 runs together in middle order.
Rajneesh Gurbani was the pick of the bowlers for Vidarbha through the season and he produced magic on the second day of the finals, as he wrapped up the Delhi innings with an amazing hat-trick.
Gurbani, who struggled with fitness during the first day, was seen taking help from the physio. However, Gurbani took an amazing hat-trick by dismissing Vikas Mishra and Navdeep Saini on the 5th and 6th balls of the 101st over of Delhi innings and then came back to dismiss Dhruv Shorey (145) on the first ball of the 103rd over of the day.
The amazing thing was that it was an all clean bowled hat-trick. Gurbani also became only the second bowler to take a hat-trick in the finals of the Ranji Trophy. Tamil Nadu's Kalyanasundaram was the first bowler ever to take a hat-trick in the finals of Ranji Trophy; a feat he achieved against Bombay in 1972-73.
Here is the video of Rajneesh Gurbani’s hat-trick:
WATCH Rajneesh Gurbani's hat-trick that sent Delhi packing in the first innings. He became only the second bowler in the history of the #RanjiTrophy #Final to take a hat-trick @paytm #DELvVID : https://t.co/W1yolPHqUC
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) December 30, 2017