Kohli, Simarjeet Sparkle as Delhi Down Andhra by 4 Wickets

Bengaluru: Star India batter Virat Kohli turned his return to Vijay Hazare Trophy after 15 years into a grand spectacle, cracking a hundred that guided Delhi to a four-wicket victory over Andhra in their opening Group D match here on Wednesday.Kohli (131, 101 balls) was ably supported by Nitish Rana (77, 55b) and Priyansh Arya (74, 44b) as Delhi scaled down a challenging target of 299 in 37.4 overs.Ricky Bhui too made a century (122, 105b) to lead Andhra to 298 for eight, but that remained a bright footnote once Kohli unleashed his genius.Pacer Simarjeet Singh (5/54) too played his part in Delhi’s win with a persistent spell on a rather flat pitch. The 37-year-old was in pristine touch once he essayed a brilliant straight drive off his India teammate Nitish Kumar Reddy in the third ball he faced. The ball rocketed to the fence past a stunned Reddy.Several other trademark shots flowed as Kohli went past 50 in 39 balls and later 100 in 83 balls with a four off pacer Shiva Narasimha Raju.It was his 58th List A hundred and also saw him becoming the fastest batter to 16000 runs in 330 innings, well ahead of the now second-placed Sachin Tendulkar (391 innings).His innings was not without blemishes either, as he was dropped on 32 by Saurabh Kumar at mid-on off pacer Satyanarayana Raju and then on 97 by Shaik Rasheed off Narasimha Raju.But that in no way robbed any sheen from his coruscating knock, that underlined the rich vein of form he is in the 50-over format.It will further embolden him ahead of the three-match ODI series against New Zealand next month, besides giving a good load of steam to stay on course for his journey towards the 2027 World Cup.Kohli formed handy associations with Arya (113 runs for second wicket) and Rana (160 runs for third wicket) as Delhi motored towards the target.But Kohli’s dismissal saw Delhi losing some quick wickets, including that of skipper Rishabh Pant, but the master batter, by then, had already done enough to see his team through.Earlier, Bhui, a consistent domestic performer, produced his fourth List A hundred to carry Andhra to a healthy total after a slow beginning.Bhui, who was given a reprieve on 84 by Rana at point off spinner Harsh Tyagi, and Rasheed milked 92 runs for the third wicket that gave Andhra the desired momentum in the middle overs.The salient feature of Bhui’s batting was the severe punishment he meted out to Delhi pacer Navdeep Saini, smoking him for three sixes — an uppercut followed by a straight lift and a pull and a straight driven four in the 30th over.His 100 came with a single off former Indian pacer Ishant Sharma in 88 balls, and he celebrated the moment with warmth.Bhui was castled in his effort to push the run-rate, but the late order added some valuable runs to take Andhra to a near 300-total.But Delhi had the ‘Chase Master’ amidst them.Brief scores:Andhra: 298/8 in 50 overs (Ricky Bhui 122, Shaikh Rasheed 31; Simarjeet 5/54, Prince Yadav 3/50) lost to Delhi: 300/6 in 37.4 overs (Virat Kohli 131, Nitish Rana 77, Priyansh Arya 74; Hemanth Reddy 2/6).Saurashtra 347 for 5 in 48.5 overs (Sammar Gajjar 132, Chirag Jani 86; Debabrata Pradhan 3/73) defeated Odisha 345 for 6 in 50 overs (Swastik Samal 212, Biplab Samantray 100; Ankur Panwar 3/68) by 5 wickets.Haryana 267 for 9 in 50 overs (Himanshu Rana 126; Adarsh Singh 3/39) lost to Railways 270 for 4 on 43.4 overs (Ravi Singh 109 not out; Sumit Kumar 2/32) by 6 wickets.Services 184 all out (Nakul Sharma 39; Arzan Nagwaswalla 4/34) lost to Gujarat 185 for 2 in 34.5 overs (Aarya Desai 77 not out; Nitin Yadav 1/30) by 8 wickets.



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