Key Points
Kohli dismissed for six runs in Ranji Trophy match
Irfan Pathan critiques cricketer's year-round workload
Delhi team recovers with Badoni's performance
Crowd disappointed by brief Kohli innings
Once again, fans turned up in huge numbers at the Arun Jaitley Stadium to watch the hometown hero, with hopes that he would dazzle on the crease.
However, to the disappointment of all the fans, Kohli's time on the crease lasted for just 15 deliveries. After seeing off a couple of deliveries, Kohli eventually found a hang of it.
He executed a perfect straight drive on the 14th delivery to find the boundary rope, sending the entire crowd into a frenzy. On the next ball, Himanshu Sangwan produced a perfect inswinger to beat Kohli's blade, sending his off-stump cartwheeling in the air. Kohli had to return to the dugout with a mere score of six.
In the aftermath of Kohli's dismissal, Irfan took to X and dropped a cryptic message, highlighting a modern-day cricketer's job to play cricket year-round, not to train for 10 months and play for two.
"At the end of the day, a modern-day cricketer's job is to play cricket year-round, managing niggles and injuries, not to train for 10 months just to play for 2 months," Irfan wrote on X.
For the thousands of fans who had flocked to the stadium hoping for a Kohli masterclass, it was a moment of disappointment. The moment after Kohli's dismissal, a huge section of the crowd started to walk out of the stadium.
After Kohli's dismissal, captain Ayush Badoni took the burden of scoring runs on his shoulder and delivered a captain's knock. Sumit Mathur joined Badoni at the crease to forge a 133-run partnership, handing Delhi a commanding position.
Badoni stood a run away from celebrating his fourth first-class hundred. But Karn Sharma, with all his experience, pegged Badoni away on 99. Mathur stayed unbeaten at the end of the day with a score of 78(189), lifting Delhi to 334/7 with a 93-run lead.
