Delhi's miserable season just got worse as premier speedster Ishant Sharma twisted his ankle after another woeful outing with the bat against defending champions Vidarbha in a Ranji Trophy group A encounter on Monday.
On a helpful track, former India U-19 seamer Aditya Thakare''s career-best 7 for 55 restricted Delhi to 163 in reply to visitors' first innings score of 179.
By the time, play was called off due to bad light, Vidarbha were 35 for no loss as the track got easier for batting.
Vidarbha now have an overall lead of 51 but more importantly, the pitch has eased out. With a bowler short and the wily artist Wasim Jaffer longing for an easy second innings pitch, Delhi at the moment is looking down the barrel.
And it didn't help Delhi's cause that Ishant's 15th delivery saw him sustain a freak injury while appealing for a leg-before against rival skipper Fazal beaten by a fuller delivery. The senior speedster twisted his ankle while back pedalling and was seen writhing in pain.
"We are awaiting his MRI report. There is swelling and it looks pretty bad at the moment. We hope that it's pure swelling and not a fracture," a source in the Delhi team management said.
The first two sessions belonged to Vidarbha as Delhi's youngsters inept tchnique against incisive swing bowling was exposed again.
IPL specialist Nitish Rana became Thakare's fifth victim of the innings giving a catch to skipper Fazal.
Only keeper Anuj Rawat (37 off 101 balls) showed some stomach for fight adding 36 for the ninth wicket with Simarjeet Singh (23) even as Umesh Yadav (2/45) removed all-rounder Lalit Yadav (7) and Kunar Bidhuri (19).
Brief Scores
In Delhi: Vidarbha 179 and 35/0. Delhi 163 (Aditya Thakare 7/55).
In Kalyani: Bengal 635/7 decl (Manoj Tiwary 303, Shreevats Goswami 95, Arnab Nandi 65). Hyderabad 83 for 5 (Akash Deep 3/46, Mukesh Kumar 2/29)
In Valsad: Gujarat 281 & 23/0. Punjab 229 (Mandeep Singh 56, Anmol Malhotra 119).
In Thumba: Kerala 90 and 82 (Shubham Sharma 6/48). Rajasthan 268 all out (Yash Kothari 92, Rajesh Bishnoi 67).
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