It was chaotic, frenzied and almost festival-like situation in and around the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Thursday, January 30 as the son of the soil Virat Kohli returned to the Ranji Trophy fold to his hometown. The 12-year-long wait ended as Kohli was a star attraction at the Arun Jaitley Stadium for a couple of days in the build-up to the Ranji Trophy Round 7 match against the Railways. That was, however, just the tease as fans thronged in numbers to watch Kohli in action in their own city.
The fans started queuing up at 3 AM on the roads in Delhi Gate and ITO leading up to Gate Nos 16 and 17 at the Stadium. Thousands of fans thronged the stadiums with north stands filled up to the brim, so much so that that the DDCA had to open a couple of more gates and stands to be able to respond to the demand of watching Kohli in his full glory at the venue.
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The DDCA didn't anticipate that the number of spectators will go up to 15,000 and even more as Kohli, the biggest crowd puller in world cricket, had the capital on his feet. Delhi skipper Ayush Badoni won the toss and elected to field and hence, the crowd didn't get what they wanted - seeing Kohli in action with the bat. However, the pitch was conducive to fast bowling in chilly conditions in winter with cold breeze blowing across and fog around, the fans expected the home team for their batting to come on the opening day itself.
Railways had lost half their side before lunch and Delhi will hope to wrap their innings up as they chase their second win of the competition and Kohli some time in the middle.
Delhi playing XI for Railways clash: Arpit Rana, Sanat Sangwan, Yash Dhull, Virat Kohli, Ayush Badoni (C), Pranav Raghuvanshi (wk), Sumit Mathur, Shivam Sharma, Navdeep Saini, Money Grewal, Siddhant Sharma