Amid the ongoing Ranji Trophy encounter between Delhi and Railways at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, three fans breached security to meet star batter Virat Kohli on Day 3. This comes after a fan managed to get past the security to catch a glimpse of Kohli from close range on Day 1. Kohli, who is playing his first Ranji Trophy match in over 12 years, scored just six runs in Delhi’s first innings, has been the main attraction of the game deemed as a dead rubber.
Despite his failure with the bat on Day 2, the former India captain continues to attract fans, even though the turnout hasn’t been the same on Day 3 as compared to the first two installments.
In a viral, three fans can be seen breaching security at once to meet Kohli. One of the fan even managed to touch the feet of Kohli before the security arrived to take him and the two others away. Kohli was fielding at cover when the incident took place in the penultimate over before lunch.
3 fans invaded together to meet the goat at Arun jaitley stadium. @imVkohli ? pic.twitter.com/ADYmvqffec
— a v i (@973Kohli) February 1, 2025
Ahead of the start of play on Day 3, black covers were placed on the edge of Bishan Singh Bedi stand adjacent to the dressing room situated in the Virat Kohli Pavilion.
For day three’s play, fans eager to watch the action at the Arun Jaitley Stadium were seated in Gautam Gambhir and Mohinder Amarnath stands, with the Old Clubhouse stands housing the DDCA members. Despite no entry on West stand, the small number of spectators have been relentlessly shouting Kohli’s name.
Coming to the match, Delhi added only 40 runs to its overnight total and were all out for 374 in 106.4 overs, thus taking a 133-run lead over Railways. Sumit Mathur eventually made 86 while Navdeep Saini chipped in with a handy 20 not out.
For Railways, fast-bowler Himanshu Sangwan was the pick of bowlers with 4-55, including uprooting Kohli’s off-stump on day two’s play. He was well-supported by pacer Kunal Yadav taking 3-104, while Rahul Sharma, Ayan Chaudhari and Karn Sharma took a wicket each.
(With IANS Inputs)