I’m a huge fan of Novak Djokovic: Sarthak Ranjan; reveals inspiration behind his celebration

Ashok Kumar 

New Delhi, August 6: North Delhi Strikers produced a brilliant performance in the Delhi Premier League (DPL) 2026 with a comfortable six-wicket victory over East Delhi Riders at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday.

Reflecting on the win, captain Sarthak Ranjan said, “It feels great to win, especially because this is my first victory as captain. We lost two early wickets, so the plan was to build a partnership and make sure we didn’t fall behind in the powerplay. Once Yash Bhatia came in, things became easier. We had a good partnership in the last match as well, and today he took a lot of pressure off me by finding the boundaries regularly. We just focused on building the innings and knew that one big over would eventually come. I didn’t expect it to be that big, but thankfully it worked in our favour.”

Ranjan also caught everyone’s attention with his celebration after reaching his half-century. Speaking about it, he said, “I’m a huge fan of Novak Djokovic, so the celebration was just a tribute to him. I’ve seen him do it after his victories, and I wanted to celebrate in a similar way.”

Earlier, East Delhi Riders posted 171/6 in their 20 overs, thanks to an unbeaten 82 off 50 balls from Sujal Singh. The left-hander anchored the innings brilliantly, striking six fours and four sixes, while wickets kept falling at the other end. For North Delhi Strikers, Vikas Dixit was the standout bowler with impressive figures of 1/19 from his four overs.

Chasing 172, North Delhi Strikers found themselves in early trouble at 39/2. However, Ranjan and Yash Bhatia stitched together a match-winning 113-run partnership for the third wicket to put the chase back on track.

Ranjan led from the front with a sensational 95 off just 50 balls, smashing eight sixes and seven fours. He also took 29 runs off a single over from Simarjeet Singh to swing the match firmly in the Strikers’ favour before falling just five runs short of a deserved century.

At the other end, Yash Bhatia continued his excellent form with an unbeaten half-century, guiding North Delhi Strikers to victory with four overs to spare.