
Courtesy: X
Virat Kohli, the former captain of India, made a triumphant return to Ranji Trophy in Delhi’s colours for the first time in nearly 13 years during a clash against Railways on Thursday, January 30. During the first day’s play, Virat Kohli was at his hilarious best on the field, entertaining the crowd at the Arun Jaitley Stadium with his antics, and at one stage, he ignited a war between fans in two stands on who cheered the loudest for him.
For the unversed, on day one of the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 clash, Virat Kohli was in the field in Delhi’s colours for 67.3 overs, during which the bowlers bundled out Railways for 241 runs in their first innings. Upendra Yadav (95 off 177) and Karn Sharma (50 off 105) shared a key partnership of 104 runs for the sixth wicket, to help the Railways get close to the 250-run mark after being reduced to 66/5 in the first session of the first day, while Navdeep Saini and Sumit Mathur took three wickets each.
Virat Kohli is expected to bat for Delhi on day two of Ranji Trophy 2024-25 clash
In response, Delhi had reached 41/1 at the close of play on day one with Sanat Sangwan and Yash Dhull staying unbeaten after the opener Arpit Rana lost his wicket to Kunal Yadav of Railways. With that, Virat Kohli, who is slated to bat for Delhi at No. 4 in the order, could get his chance to entertain the fans with his batting after being a livewire throughout the first day as a fielder for Delhi.
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Meanwhile, while speaking to PTI in an exclusive interview, DDCA secretary Ashok Sharma was quite happy to see Virat Kohli’s return to Delhi’s Ranji Trophy team after such a long time. He was quoted as saying, “I have been involved in Delhi cricket for more than 30 years but I have not witnessed such scenes for a Ranji Trophy game. It just shows the Kohli’s popularity is unmatched.”
Furthermore, Ashok Sharma also detailed the difficulties faced by the DDCA due to the intense footfall of the fans of Virat Kohli at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, who wanted to catch the glimpse of the star cricket in-person.