Dhapola’s eight-wicket punch demolishes Himachal

Dehradun, Dec 27 (PTI) Uttarakhand seam bowler Deepak Dhapola breathed fire on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Group A match, grabbing eight Himachal Pradesh wickets as the visitors were bundled out for 49 runs on Tuesday.

Dhapola, 32, dismissed three players for duck and returned figures of 8/35 off 8.3 overs as Himachal could not weather the storm and were dismissed inside 17 overs.

At stumps on day one, Uttarakhand were batting on 295 for six, having taken a massive 246-run first-innings lead. Aditya Tare (91 not out) and Abhay Negi (48 not out) showed there were no demons in the pitch as they batted with confidence.

But the highlight of the day was Bageshwar-born Dhapola’s bowling. The seamer, who made his first-class debut in 2018 and is playing only his 15th game, had a previous best bowling figures of 7/50 in an innings, but on Tuesday he bettered his personal best as Himachal batters made a beeline to the dressing room.

Dhapola’s feat did not miss the attention of the BCCI secretary Jay Shah who termed it as one of the finest bowling performances of the tournament.

“Ranji Trophy has time and again helped bring out raw homegrown talent onto the forefront. This time it’s Deepak Dhapola! His 8/35 against Himachal is one of the finest bowling performances of the tournament. Long way to go!” tweeted Shah.

Dhapola, who was the leading wicket-taker for his state in the group stage of the 2018 19 Ranji Trophy with 44 dismissals in seven matches and finished the tournament with 45 wickets in eight games, will look to improve his best bowling figures in a first-class match (12/96) when he comes out with the red cherry in the second innings.

His dominance was such that only one Himachal batter — Ankit Kalsi (26) — could manage a double-dight score with four batters returning to the dressing room without opening their account.

Uttarakhand began their innings on a confident note with Priyanshu Khanduri (36) and skipper Jiwanjot Singh (45) giving a solid start to the hosts. Later, Aditya Tare’s composed unbeaten 91 put them on course for a big total.

With Dhapola virtually unplayable, Uttarakhand could go all out to finish the match inside two days.

Brief scores:

At Dehradun: Himachal 49 in 16.3 overs (Deepak Dhapola 8/35, Abhay Negi 2/5) vs Uttarakhand 295 for 6 in 65 overs (Jiwanjot Singh 45, Aditya Tare 91 n.o., Abhay Negi 48 n.o.; Rishi Dhawan 3/52).

At Sovima: Nagaland 166 for 9 in 62 overs (Chetan Bist 64; Pradipta Pramanik 5/43) versus Bengal.

At Cuttack: Haryana 306 for 5 in 90 overs (Nishant Sindhu 142 n.o.; Rohit Sharma 55) versus Odisha.

At Vadodara: Uttar Pradesh 225 for 7 in in 91 overs (Priyam Garg 52, Akshdeep Nath 57 n.o; Bhargav Bhatt 3/81) versus Baroda.