Manan cements all-rounder tag

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Siddhartha Mathur: New Delhi, Nov 16 2011, 00:57 IST

At the end of third day’s play of the CK Nayudu Trophy match between Delhi and Gujarat at Jamia Millia University ground on Monday, Delhi U-22 coach Amit Bhandari told his players to take five laps on the field which was later reduced to two laps. One of the players instrumental in getting the post game workout cancelled was skipper Manan Sharma. It wasn’t that he was feeling lazy or simply unwilling. Manan simply wanted to save his energy for the fourth day’s play.

At that stage in the game Manan was batting on 17 alongside Vaibhav Rawal (43) with Delhi 50 runs adrift of Gujrat’s first innings total. Knowing his team had no intention to declare the innings and force a result on the last day, Manan was keen to score as much as possible. He did exactly that scoring 127 off 213 balls to help his team reach 540/6 at close of play on Tuesday. On the basis of the first innings lead, Delhi has topped the table and will now prepare for the knock out tournament beginning November 28.

The knock though was doubly satisfying for Manan. Although his official role is that of an all rounder, prior to the Gujarat match, Sharma was more of a bowler in the tournament with 14 wickets in three matches with his left arm spin. The century highlighted the batting aspect of his role. Having taken two wickets in the Gujarat innings with his left arm spin, Manan now

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