Kohli fever wears off quickly; Mumbai put one foot in last-8

New Delhi: Virat Kohli’s first Ranji Trophy innings in 13 years lasted all of 15 balls, extending his lean run and fuelling the debate over his form.

For the 5,000-odd crowd that assembled here to watch Kohli (6 off 15 balls), it was fun while it lasted but when he had his off-stump uprooted by Railways pacer Himanshu Sangwan in the 28th over of Delhi’s first innings, a majority of them took no time to exit the Arun Jaitley Stadium.

The frequent chants of ‘RCB, RCB’ and ‘Kohli, Kohli’ dried up as the superstar took the long walk back to the dressing room, giving Railway employee Sangwan the most prized scalp of his career.

It was skipper Ayush Badoni’s audacious 99 which helped Delhi take the first-innings lead against Railways on Day 2 of their Group D match. Resuming the day at 41/1, Delhi were able to get past Railways’ 241 courtesy a 133-run stand between Badoni (99 off 77) and Sumit Mathur (78 not out off 189). At stumps, Delhi had taken a 93-run lead by reaching 334/7.

Badoni put the opposition bowlers under pressure with a fearless display of stroke-making before falling to a slog sweep of leg-spinner Karn Sharma in the 56th over.

Mumbai pile up misery

Mumbai: Mumbai piled up a massive 585-run first-innings lead and made early inroads against Meghalaya, while Jammu and Kashmir grabbed a crucial 205-run advantage against Baroda in their Group A matches.

Mumbai skipper Ajinkya Rahane missed a century but maiden First-Class tons from Akash Anand (103) and Shams Mulani (100 not out), Siddhesh Lad’s 145 and fifties from Shardul Thakur (84) and Suryansh Shedge (61) powered the hosts to a massive 671/7 declared in the first innings. Meghalaya, who were shot out for 86 in the first innings, slipped to 27/2 at stumps on the second day, trailing by 558 runs as Mumbai took big strides towards a massive win to ensure qualification for the quarterfinals.