HP Ranji pacer Sidharth dies at 28

New Delhi, january 13

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Tragedy struck India’s domestic cricket as young Himachal Pradesh seam bowler Sidharth Sharma died in a Vadodara hospital after a brief illness, confirmed a senior official of Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA).

The 28-year-old pace bowler was part of the Himachal Pradesh squad that won the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2021-22 and had played six First-Class, six List A and one T20 game for the state and had taken 33 wickets.

“Sidharth left us on Thursday night. He was on ventilator support for the past few days. He was in squad during our last round game in Vadodara against Baroda. Before the game, he started vomiting and had problems in passing urine and had to be immediately admitted to a local hospital. His condition deteriorated in following days,” HPCA secretary Avnish Parmar said.

Sidharth is survived by his parents and a brother, who lives abroad. “His last rites were performed today after his brother arrived from Canada. We have lost a very sincere player, who would have served the state for long,” Parmar said.

The last match that he played this season was at the Eden Gardens against West Bengal on December 20-23 and he took his maiden five-wicket haul, 5/69 and seven scalps in all. He was jointly the third highest wicket-taker in the season with 12 victims from two games.

“At the beginning of the season, when physio tested each and every player, Sidharth was declared match fit. The next match after Bengal was in Dehradun against Uttarakhand. He was rested as he had complained of uneasiness. He was picked in squad for Baroda game and fell ill before the game,” Parmar said. Sidharth’s death was also condoled by Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. — PTI

Delhi win but miss out on knockouts

New Delhi: Himmat Singh’s stylish hundred complemented by a gutsy 65-run last-wicket stand between tailenders Harshit Rana and Divij Mehra earned Delhi three vital points against Andhra Pradesh in a Ranji Trophy Group B game here today. However, with only five points from five games, Delhi are out of the competition and even two bonus-point wins in the next two games against Mumbai and Hyderabad won’t take them to the top-two in the group.

Brief scores: Andhra Pradesh 459/9 decl in 133.2 overs (Vihari 85, Gnaneshwar 81; Shokeen 4/114) vs Delhi 488/9 in 147 overs (Shorey 185, Himmat 104; Reddy 3/90); J&K 212 and 260 (Ajaz 89; Baltej 5/45) vs Punjab 268 and 210/6 in 24.5 overs (Abhishek 83; Mushtaq 4/56); Vidarbha 307/6 decl in 73.2 overs (Raghunath 133; Hartejassvi 2/40) vs Chandigarh 16/1 in 5 overs; Odisha 191 and 374 vs HP 258 and 310/7 in 76.3 overs (Kalsi 165*, Dhawan 102; Mohanty 3/40).