2024 Reporter Diaries: When smog couldn’t stop Anshul Kamboj’s special 10-wicket haul in a Ranji game - Pranay Rajiv, Sportstar
The HinduHaving only read about smog in textbooks and newspaper articles, this reporter got to experience it firsthand for the first time in his life during his maiden Ranji Trophy assignment, a match between Haryana and Kerala in Rohtak. Besides the gloomy welcome by an acrid blanket of this man-made weather phenomenon, the reporter was taken aback by a prescient cab driver who predicted the first day’s play of the game wouldn’t begin until 12 pm, due to the all-encompassing smog that had literally engulfed the town. The cab driver’s judgement proved accurate, and not just for the first day, as the smog ate into the official play time at both ends throughout the match. Haryana pacer Anshul Kamboj managed to claim all 10 wickets in Kerala’s first innings, becoming only the third bowler, after Premansu Chatterjee and Pradeep Sunderam, to achieve the feat. Fortune also allowed the reporter to capture videos of Kamboj’s 10th wicket and his proud walk back to the pavilion – which turned out to be the reporter’s most viral post on X.