After Delhi's punch, Thakare throws his hat in the ring

NAGPUR: Barring Wasim Jaffer's brilliant display of batting, Sunday was not so inspiring for Vidarbha. The batters struggled badly under seaming conditions. It looked like Delhi, playing on their home turf, were comfortably placed after bowling defending champions for just 179. It was then that Vidarbha pacer Aditya Thakare set cat among the pigeons.
The comeback man of Vidarbha, Thakare swung the ball in both the directions, troubled both left and right-handed batsmen with absolute authority and ignited Vidarbha's hope.
The 21-year-old Thakare, who took 4 for 14, single-handedly reduced Delhi to 41 for 4. The Thakare-like inspiring show has been the significant factor behind Vidarbha's enormous success in domestic cricket. Whenever the Faiz Fazal's side has been on a sticky note, some or the other young player has raised his game and eked the side out of trouble.
Akshay Wadkar, Aditya Sarvate, Rajneesh Gurbani and Akshay Karnewar - all have raised their bar in their initial years of their first-class career. On Sunday, it was Thakare who threw his hat in the ring and gave Vidarbha hope of a crucial first innings lead.
The USP of Thakare, who is playing his seventh first-class match after making his debut in historic 2017-18 Ranji Trophy final against Delhi, is the way he bowls at an exceptional length in the corridor of uncertainty.
He displayed his flair with two wickets in an over against Delhi. He sent Kunal Chandela packing with an incoming delivery. Three balls later, he bowled an out swinger and saw Delhi skipper Dhruv Shorey edging it behind the wicket. Thakare had used similar away swinging delivery to undo Chandela on his debut.
The 2018-19 season was a massive learning curve for Thakare after he was asked to play in the Under-23 side. He has gained a bit of pace and bettered the knack of hitting the wicket at the right length. Delhi's left-hander Jonty Sidhu was undone by a sharp incoming delivery with his furniture being castled apart.
The pacer has a good sense of when to go all out, and once batsmen gives him even the slightest hint, Thakare preys on it, like he did on Sunday.
The wiry and athletic Thakare has escalated his season's tally to 31 wickets after the Sunday's performance. The pacer was the leading wicket-taker for Vidarbha Under-23 team with 35 scalps including with two 7-wicket hauls when Chandrakant Pandit included him in the squad for Delhi match.
His 12-wicket haul against Rajasthan gave a come-from-behind victory for Vidarbha's under-23 team couple weeks ago. Last week, he grabbed another seven-wicket haul against Maharashtra when conditions for batting got much better.
Though Thakare's job is only half done, the current seaming conditions in Delhi would only boost him, when he takes the ball in hand on Monday morning.