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Ishant makes good impression

NEW DELHI: India speedster Ishant Sharma warmed up nicely for the forthcoming Test series against South Africa by grabbing three wickets for Delhi against Vidarbha in the Ranji Trophy match here on Thursday.

Ishant makes good impression

Ishant Sharma extracted good pace and bounce from the Kotla wicket to keep the Vidarbha batsmen in check. PTI



Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 8

India speedster Ishant Sharma warmed up nicely for the forthcoming Test series against South Africa by grabbing three wickets for Delhi against Vidarbha in the Ranji Trophy match here on Thursday.

Serving a one-Test ban for his outburst during the third Test against Sri Lanka, Ishant impressed by providing crucial breakthroughs whenever the Vidarbha batsmen looked to take control of the proceedings.

Ishant finished with an impressive 26/3 from 15 overs, which included six maidens. He was well supported by Pradeep Sangwan, who bowled with a lot of discipline to dismiss in-form Subramaniam Badrinath (44) and Shalabh Shrivastava (27).

Ishant had been in the news for the wrong reasons before the start of the Ranji season. First, he was handed a one-Test ban by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for his boorish behaviour in Sri Lanka; and then he was dropped by the Delhi selectors for the first match against Rajasthan for being “incommunicado”.

It was only after Ishant, who was in Bengaluru for India’s preparatory camp, got in touch with Delhi chief selector Vinay Lamba that he was included in the squad for the second match. Ishant has also confirmed his availability for the upcoming match against Odisha.

On Thursday, the pacer put all the controversies behind him when Delhi skipper Gautam Gambhir handed him the new ball after winning the toss. He bowled a menacing first spell of five overs, in which he dismissed opener Ganesh Satish (5). It was heartening to watch Ishant generate both pace and bounce out of the batting-friendly Kotla wicket, which supported the pacers initially, but got low and slow as the day wore on.

Ishant, who replaced Parvinder Awana in the playing XI, gave away just 12 runs in his first spell. And when he returned for the second spell after the lunch break, he bowled three consecutive maiden overs. Ishant later accounted for a dangerous-looking Faiz Fazal (56) and Aditya Shanware (41) in his next two spells to put his side in a commanding position.

Vidarbha got off to a poor start as they lost Wasim Jaffer on the very first ball of the day when the veteran opener went for a non-existent single. Satish, too, departed cheaply as the visitors were reduced to 16 for two in the 17th over. That brought Fazal and Badrinath to the crease, and the duo put on a 99-run partnership for the third wicket before the latter fell to Sangwan. Soon after that, Fazal was caught by Mohit Ahlawat off Ishant as Vidarbha were reduced to 125 for four.

Shanware then tried to resurrect the innings with his gritty 41, but he fell to Ishant in the penultimate over of the innings.

Brief scores: Vidarbha 222/6 in 90 overs (Faiz Fazal 56, Subramaniam Badrinath 44; Ishant Sharma 3/26, Pradeep Sangwan 2/35).

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