Virat Kohli might not be playing for India at this moment but his craze among the fans were palpable outside the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Thursday morning as fans thronged the premises from as early as 4 AM in the morning to get a glimpse of their favourite star. The 36-year-old Virat Kohli returned to the Ranji Trophy in Delhi jersey against Railways – for the first time in more than 12 years.
Such has been the craze for Virat Kohli that probably for the first time in nearly a decade a Ranji Trophy match became full house. Many would take Virat Kohli’s highest individual score for Delhi came against Bengal in 2010 when he scored 173 in a Ranji Trophy match. Little did people know that Virat Kohli’s career-best score for Delhi came way back in 2008 against a Pakistan’s Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGP) in the now-abandoned Nissar Trophy.
The Nissar Trophy, named after former pre-partition Indian Test cricketer Mohammad Nissar, was played between the champions of Ranji Trophy (India) and Quaid-i-Azam Trophy (Pakistan). It happened for three seasons with Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh winning in 2006 and 2007 seasons respectively. SNGP claimed the 2008 title.
Virat Kohli was in red-hot form in 2008. He has just led the India to an U-19 World Cup title that same year and also made his senior national team debut in limited-overs cricket. After top-scoring with 52 in the first innings, Virat Kohli put his A game forward with a brilliant 197 in the second innings, thus leading the match to a draw. However, SNGP won the title by the virtue of a first-innings lead.
Although Virat Kohli missed a well-deserved double hundred, but it remained as the right-hander’s highest individual score for the state side. In that game, Delhi also had the stalwarts like Virender Sehwag, Ishant Sharma and Ashish Nehra in their playing XI. SNGP too were a star-studded side at that time with the likes of Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammed Hafeez, Yasir Arafat and Umar Akmal.
Opting to bat first, Delhi were bowled out for just 134 with SNGP’s Imran Ali taking 6/52. In reply, SNGP put on 266 runs with Khurram Shehzad and Umar Akmal top-scoring with 66 and 58 runs respectively.
In the second innings, Delhi put up a much-improved show with Virat Kohli and Aakash Chopra (182) striking daddy hundreds. Delhi ended Day 3 at 516/4 with no play possible on the fourth and final day.
