Ranji Trophy: Aditya Thakare’s 7-for gives Vidarbha slender lead

NAGPUR: Aditya Thakare was invloved in nine out of ten Delhi wickets.The 21-year-old was all over Delhi, picking up his best First Class figures, and taking two excellent catches. The second one of those dismissed Delhi’s top scorer Anuj Rawat, who was the only one to look comfortable on a challenging wicket at Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi.The wicket had something in it for fast bowlers but Thakare utilized it in the best possible way. He returned with 7-55 that helped Vidarbha bowl Delhi out for 163, conceding a slender 16-run lead in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group ‘A’ match on Monday.Vidarbha openers Faiz Fazal (22, 38b, 5x4) and Sanjay Ramswamy remained unbeaten when bad light stopped the play just after tea. Delhi also lost the services of their premier pacer Ishant Sharma who slipped while appealing for an leg before wicket against Faiz.Ishant looked charged up as soon as Delhi innings finished and gave a pep talk to his players before Vidarbha innings. With wicket offering enough, he could have been a big threat to Vidarbha.Just like Ishant did for Delhi, his tall counterpart from Vidarbha, Thakare, bowled much fuller to reap the rewards. He made the batsmen play on most of the occasion and none of Delhi batsmen looked comfortable against this former India U-19 pacer. He had picked all four wickets on Sunday.It didn’t take long for Thakare to strike when Delhi resumed at their overnight 41-4. He pitched the ball little wide on driving area out side off stump to Nitish Rana. The southpaw fell in trap and went for off drive, only to edge to Faiz at second slip. Allrounder Lalit Yadav, while trying to whip the ball to leg off Umesh Yadav, got a leading edge. Thakre dived full length to take brilliant catch.Rawat batted sensibly and showed good technique against Vidarbha pacers. It was his gritty 37-run knock that took the hosts cross 150-run mark. He charged down the track to Aditya Sarvate and connected well but Thakare jumped and completed a good catch at long on boundary to end Rawat’s resistance. The pacer then knocked off Kulwant Khejroliya’s middle with another full length delivery to end Delhi’s innings.SCOREBOARDVidarbha (1st Innings): 179.Delhi (1st Innings, overight 41-4): Nitish Rana c Fazal b Thakare 17, Lalit Yadav c Thakare b Yadav 7, Anuj Rawat c Thakare b Sarvate 37, Kunwar Bidhuri c Fazal b Yadav 19, Ishant Sharma c Wadkar b Thakare 9, Simarjeet Singh not out 23, Kulwant Khejroliya b Thakare 7; Extras: (b 5, lb 9, nb 1, w 1) 16;Total: (All out, 53.1 Overs) 163;Fall of wickets: 1-22, 2-22, 3-27, 4-35, 5-62, 6-64, 7-100, 8-118, 9-154;Bowling: Umesh Yadav 20-8-45-2, Aditya Thakare 17.1-3-55-7, Akshay Wakhare 2-0-6-0, Rajneesh Gurbani 11-1-31-0, Aditya Sarvate 3-0-12-1.Vidarbha (2nd Innings): Faiz Fazal batting 22, Sanjay Ramaswamy batting 8; Extras: (lb 3, nb 1, w 1) 5;Total: (No loss, 10 Overs) 35;Bowling: Ishant Sharma 2.3-1-8 -0, Simarjeet Singh 4-2-9-0, Kulwant Khejroliya 1.3-0-2-0, Kunwar Bidhuri 2-0-13-0.