The humiliation was complete for Hyderabad.
The home team suffered a nine-wicket defeat against Delhi in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium on Friday. With this defeat, Hyderabad finished the league with just one point from seven games, which included six straight losses.
The lacklustre performance resulted in Hyderabad being relegated to the Plate Group of the championship.
Pacer Harshit Rana, 21, returned with his career-best figures of seven for 45 in his only fifth first-class match to fashion Delhi’s convincing win. He picked three more wickets to his overnight haul of four, ensuring that the Hyderabad innings lasted just 6.4 overs to be bowled out for 124, after conceding a lead of 78 runs.
Divij Mehra also picked three wickets to help Delhi’s cause. The defeat, in a way, was not unexpected, given the batting horrors that were the feature of Hyderabad’s campaign this season.
The first to be dismissed this morning was Shashank Lokesh, who nicked one from Divij in the second over of the day, and in the next over Santosh Goud was caught at second slip by Himmat Singh of Rana, presenting a sorry sight of Hyderabad’s batting.
With these two gone, it was only a formality as Rana ensured there were no more worries despite debutant Praneeth Raj hitting him for four fours in one over.
Chasing a modest target of 47, Delhi lost captain Yash Dhull, mistiming a pull stroke off pacer Kartikeyak Kak, the lead wicket-taker for Hyderabad this season. But, there was never a doubt as Delhi wrapped up the contest in 8.4 overs.
