Ranji Trophy: Vidharbha's Rajneesh Gurbani Becomes Only 2nd Bowler To Bag Hat-Trick In Final

Rajneesh Gurbani today became only the second bowler to bag a hat-trick in the final of the Ranji Trophy. The Vidharbha pacer dismissed Vikas Mishra, Navdeep Saini and Dhruv Shorey to earn himself a slice of history. Gurbani's effort helped his side skittle out favorites Delhi for 295. B Kalyanasundaram was the first bowler to achieve this feat when he claimed a hat-trick for Tamil Nadu against Bombay in 1972/73 in final. Gurbani struck three balls after his hat-trick, cleaning up Kulwant Khejroliya to end Delhi's innings. With wickets of Rishabh Pant and Himmat Singh Day 1, Gurbani finished with a 6-wicket haul.

Rajneesh Gurbani's hat-trick sends Delhi packing https://t.co/vQDvZLJ63m

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On the opening day of the final, Shorey's unbeaten ton helped Delhi score 271/6 at the Holkar Cricket Stadium.

Put in to bat, Delhi started off on a poor note as openers Kunal Chandela (0) and Gautam Gambhir (15) failed to provide the start the team wanted. Chandela was dismissed in the first over by Aditya Thakare.

After adding 29 runs to the score, Gambhir was also sent packing by Akshay Wakhare in the 13th over.

Shorey then came in the middle but lack of support from the other end cost Delhi heavily.

Apart from Himmat Singh (66), no other middle-order batsmen -- Nitish Rana (21), Pant (21) and Manan Sharma (13) -- contributed much to the cause and thus only managed to get 271 on the first day.

(With inputs from IANS)