Chennai celebrates after Nehra struck to remove Delhi's openers.
© BCCI
Ashish Nehra had last played for India way back on March 30, 2011. In a high-tension World Cup semifinal against arch-rivals Pakistan, the left-arm seamer from Delhi snared 2/33 as MS Dhoni's men successfully defended 260 to book� a spot in the final. An injury before the title clash forced Nehra to sit out; it has been four years since and Nehra continues to sit out of the Indian team.
But at 35, a charged-up Nehra has refused to give up his hopes of one last hurrah. Chennai Super Kings had managed only 150 with all their batting might against the Delhi Daredevils. Under lights, on the usually spin friendly pitch at the Chepauk, Nehra turned on the heat on Delhi, sniffing out 3/17 off his 3 overs. Chennai were right back in it. He bowled with pace, extracted movement and left CM Gautam, Manish Agarwal and Shreyas Iyer in shock.
Dhoni took Nehra off after his first spell; he wanted to hold his ace pacer back for one more over with the likes of JP Duminy and Yuvraj Singh still to come in for the Daredevils. But Nehra had made his point. At an age when most pacers think of hanging their boots up, he was still the trump card for a skipper who had the likes of Mohit Sharma, Dwayne Bravo, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja to choose from.
Nehra has often complained that he has not got enough chances. In Australia, India felt the distinct lack of a good left-arm pacer as Mitchell Starc, Trent Boult and Wahab Riaz made serious impacts for their teams. Who knows what Nehra could have brought to the table for the 2011 world champions.
Nehra's exploits drew excited reactions from another India discard, Virender Sehwag. Like Nehra, the Nawaab of Najafgarh has not given up hopes of an India comeback. Sehwag took to Twitter to express his admiration.
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