New Delhi: Shikhar Dhawan served a timely reminder to the national selectors with a brilliant century as Delhi defeated England by six wickets to hand the visitors their second loss in warm-up games on Tuesday.
Chasing a difficult 294 for five set by England, who were led by Ian Bell (108), Delhi rode on skipper Dhawan’s 110 and Milind Kumar’s unbeaten 78 to overhaul the target with nine balls to spare.
Left-hander Dhawan, who last played for India in the West Indies, cracked his 110 off only 109 balls to set up a chase which initially looked difficult. He hit 13 fours and three huge sixes – one each off Jade Dernbach, James Tredwell and Stuart Meaker.
If Dhawan and Unmukt Chand (37) started the chase well, adding 98 for the opening stand, unheralded youngster Milind and veteran Rajat Bhatia (45 not out) finished off the run chase with a flourish as they hit 103 runs off 72 balls.
The day, however, belonged to Dhawan who hogged the limelight with brilliant authorative display. Time and again, he drove the pace quartet of Steven Finn, Dernbach, Meaker and Chris Woakes through the covers. The moment, the pacers dug it in short, he was quickly in a position to play the pull shot. (PTI)
Brief scores:
England: 294-5, 50 overs (I Bell 108; V Sood 3-45)
Delhi: 295-4, 48.3 overs (S Dhawan 110; J Tredwell 2-49)
