Champagne debut for Shewag

Virender Shewag made his first class debut against Haryana at Rohtak's Maharaja Agrasen Stadium in October 1998, two days after his 20th birthday. It was the first engagement for both sides in the North Zone league. Haryana captain Vijay Yadav opted to bat first on winning the toss and, to his chagrin, found his team bundled out for 139 on the opening day.

The wickets were shared by six Delhi bowlers and the honour of collecting the best figures went to - yes, you guessed it - Virender Shewag. His well directed offbreaks harvested the scalps of Dhanraj Singh and Pradeep Jain, leg before and bowled respectively, en route to the remarkable figures of 7-3-7-2.

Shewag walked in at No.7 with the Delhi reply stuttering on 142/5 and saw two more compatriots depart soon after his arrival to leave Delhi on 159/7. That they finally reached 299 was a tribute to the intensity of the fightback waged by Shewag in company of the tail. The debutant added 40 for the eighth wicket with Rahul Sanghvi, 36 for the ninth with Amit Bhandari and a further 64 for the last wicket with Robin Singh junior. Of 157 runs added during Shewag's stay at the crease, his personal contribution was 118 (147 balls, 16 fours, 3 sixes) until he was last out.

Delhi had a sizable lead of 160, and the bowlers did their job for the second time, as Haryana slumped to 182. Amit Bhandari was the wrecker in chief with 5/54, leaving Delhi the simple task of scoring 23 for victory, which they did for the loss of one wicket. Certainly a debut to savour for the gutsy Shewag, who showed during the course of the season that the hundred was not a one-off event. 745 runs flowed from his blade in the 1998-99 Ranji campaign, firmly ensconcing him on top of the run aggregates for Delhi.