Grown up playing with Rishabh Pant’s kit, Sanat Sangwan helps Delhi secure draw

NEW DELHI: Sanat Sangwan has grown up practicing with Rishabh Pant’s batting gloves and bats at Sonnet Club. On Monday, the 24-year-old opener scored 83 off 231, an innings unlike Pant, to help Delhi escape with a draw with two wickets to spare against Tamil Nadu.
Delhi have been anything but competitive in this match. Early on the final morning, Tamil Nadu bowled the hosts out in the first innings with a lead of 408 runs.
Yash Dhull remained unbeaten on 105 as Delhi folded for 266 with Dhurv Kaushik not batting due to hand injury. Dhull was Delhi’s big hope to ensure a draw and he came out to open in the second innings only to be cleaned up by left-arm seamer Gurjapneet Singh for eight in the first over.
Followed by a familiar Delhi’s batting collapse and some late-evening time-wasting antics by Navdeep Saini and Himanshu Chauhan, Delhi finished at 193/8 as bad light stopped play.
A few missed opportunities due to lethargic fielding aside, Tamil Nadu really rode on Washington Sundar’s immaculate off-spin which fetched him figures 3/45 in the second innings that kept the visitors in the game.
As much as the Tamil Nadu camp would be blaming Saini and Chauhan for taking more than five minutes each to treat their injuries, the management must revisit its decision to keep on batting beyond Tea on Day Two and at a slower rate.
But the day belonged to Sangwan. Sangwan’s schooling has been at Delhi’s best nurseries in Sonnet Club. Pant’s success has gone a long way in inspiring players at the club.
“Rishabh bhaiya’s kit used to come to the club late Tarak Sinha sir and Devender sir used to give me his gloves and bats. I have recently outgrown his gloves. But that was such a great motivation. Mayank Yadav and I played together. We used to wait for Rishabh’s kit to come,” he said.
Delhi have been yearning for a steady opener for years now. The southpaw showed top class temperament in curbing his natural big-hitting game.
When he nicked one to wicketkeeper Jagadeesan off Sonu Yadav with nine overs remaining in the day, the disappointment was evident. He resisted the temptation to go for his maiden first-class hundred for long.
“The thought of scoring a hundred did cross my mind for a bit. But I knew if I helped Delhi get at least one point from this match, it would be all worth it. I had to control my instincts really hard,” Sangwan said after the match.
Delhi’s abysmal performance has a silver lining with Sangwan looking a good prospect to get them off to steadier starts.