Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018-19: The reason why Gautam Gambhir was retired out after scoring 151 runs

Even at the age of 36, Gautam Gambhir hasn’t given up on his hopes to play for Team India it seems. He has been appointed the leader of Delhi for the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy and is certainly leading from the front as far as his batting is concerned. The skipper smashed 151 runs in the game against Kerala on Friday and he did it only off 104 deliveries with 18 fours and four massive sixes. However, he was retired out after that with 10 overs to go in the innings and many are left with perplexed with the same.

Even after Gambhir’s departure, the runs kept on coming for Delhi as they posted a mammoth total of 392 runs for the loss of three wickets after being invited to bat first at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium. In response, Kerala crumbled under the pressure and could only make 227 runs in 50 overs. They lost the game by 165 runs and frankly, they never looked like chasing down the total.

What is the reason?

Gautam Gambhir was having a great day with the bat and reached his 150 with exactly 10 overs to go. He had a brilliant chance to notch up his first double century in List-A cricket. Not that the bowlers were bowling poorly but the left-hander was middling the ball extremely well. But he decided to walk out of the ground in order to give the other batsmen a chance.

He was given retired out in the scorecard and his departure gave a chance to the likes of Nitish Rana and Pranshu Vijayran. Though the former was dismissed soon, Vijayran batted well and supported Dhruv Shorey well. Delhi added 97 runs in the last ten overs as Shorey remained unbeaten on 99.

But Gambhir’s gesture is being lauded all over as he gave an opportunity to the youngsters to score runs at the death which worked as well.

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