Ranji Trophy: Gautam Gambhir slams unbeaten 92 against Andhra in farewell match

Gautam Gambhir lived a charmed life but the famous grit was displayed in abundance on way to an unbeaten 92, his final knock in competitive cricket guiding Delhi to 190 for one.

On the second day of the Ranji Trophy encounter against Andhra, Delhi were placed well in reply to the visitors' first-innings score of 390.

Everything else became a footnote once Gambhir entered the field.

It was a Feroz Shah Kotla hosting a Ranji match, for which a few hundred faithful from Old Delhi turned up.

The stage was set and there were little elements that the handful of people would remember in his last hurrah.

There was a customary security breach (synonymous with Kotla) with a fan trying to click a selfie before being hauled up, the Guard of Honour by teammates at every break and his wife turning up with two adorable daughters just after the husband completed a fifty.

There was the artist Saif splashing his canvas with colours to capture for posterity his final on-field exploits.

Gautam Gambhir had it all and even the Almighty wouldn't have wanted the fairytale script to go awry.

So no one complained when an Andhra fielder dropped a sitter at mid-off, a regulation catch which would have been otherwise gobbled "11 out of 10 times".

He was twice dropped in the slips but it didn't matter during the 152 balls that he played.

They wanted to see Gambhir bat like Gambhir. Ugly but effective with some pleasant drives sprinkled in between and scrappy at other times.