Gambhir hits ton, Delhi take first innings lead vs Andhra

New Delhi, December 8

Gautam Gambhir scored 43rd First Class century of his career as Delhi ensured at least three points by virtue of first innings lead against Andhra on the third day of their Group B encounter.

At stumps, Delhi were 409/7 in reply to Andhra's 380 but every other detail was of little consequence because of one man playing his last game. The entire focus was on Gambhir, who is set to hang his boots on Sunday, made it memorable for the 500-odd spectators, who were present at the stadium to cheer every run that he scored.

A streaky boundary through the slips took him to 98 and then he square drove pacer Bandaru Ayappa to scamper home for a double to complete his century. While the 100-odd youngsters sporting "Miss you Gauti' T-shirts were overwhelmed with emotion, the former India opener was muted in his celebrations as he didn't even bother to take off his helmet. He added 113 runs for the second wicket with skipper Dhruv Shorey (98) before India A keeper Kona Bharat finally held onto an edge with off-spinner Shoaib Mohammed Khan being the beneficiary. 

It wasn't a smooth innings but no one cared for the details like 10 boundaries and 185 balls as he got a generous applause. The Delhi players gave him a guard of honour, the spectators gave a standing ovation and the entire Andhra team came up to congratulate him. He strode back to pavilion in a matter of fact manner as the interest in the day's proceedings suddenly waned.

Shorey looked the most assured batsmen on the day where most struggled to get going against a disciplined Andhra attack. He added another 86 runs with Vaibhav Rawal but failed to complete a deserved ton. The lower order, contributed to take the hosts past Andhra’s first innings score of 380 to take three points.

Brief Scores: Andhra Pradesh: 380; Delhi: 409/7 (G Gambhir 112, D Shorey 98, M Golamaru 3/126, S Khan 3/138). 

Rohera creates record for highest first-class debut score

Indore: Madhya Pradesh opener Ajay Rohera etched his name in the record books by slamming the highest first-class score on debut, an unbeaten 267 against Hyderabad in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match. Rohera’s unbeaten 267 is a world record. The record was earlier held by former Mumbai stalwart Amol Mazumdar, who had hit 260 against Haryana at Faridabad in 1994.