Veteran pacer Ishant Sharma didn’t bowl a single over in the second innings due to an “unspecified injury” as Delhi, with severely depleted bowling resources, crashed to a nine-wicket defeat against Maharashtra in a Ranji Trophy group B match on Friday.
Ishant bowled 20 overs in the first innings and didn’t turn up for the second innings as Maharashtra batters Pavan Shah (87 not out) and Kaushal Tambe (64 not out) easily chased down the target of 178 in little under 46 overs.
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This was after Himmat Singh’s (84) another gutsy effort took Delhi’s second innings score to 310 to bring them back in the game.
However, Delhi’s first innings bowling hero Simarjeet Singh, who was forced to bowl 35 overs, could only bowl two overs in the second innings with a hamstring issue.
The other pacer Mayank Yadav also has sustained hamstring injury while bowling in the first innings.
With all three front-line seamers unavailable, Delhi captain Yash Dhull had to use five spinners in all, including himself.
Vikas Mishra (0/58 in 20 overs), just like first innings, was ineffective and Lalit Yadav (1/59 in 14 overs) was equally pedestrian on a track where 17 out of 20 Delhi wickets were picked by Maharashtra seamers.
The Delhi team didn’t have any camp prior to Ranji season despite being knocked out of the Vijay Hazare Trophy at the group league stage.
“We play the next match against Assam in Guwahati on a green-top and all our top seamers would be unavailable. Ishant is already out of the next match. May be we have to try Prince Yadav.
“I guess it is time that selectors need to see if some senior players are only coming to play for IPL auctions or to serve Delhi cricket. If first one is priority, they better be not picked,” a senior DDCA official said.
Questions are also being raised as to why someone like Mishra, who can just bowl defensive lines, is persisted with season after season when a red-hot Hrithik Shokeen is cooling his heels in the sidelines.
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Brief Scores:
In Pune: Delhi 191 and 310 (Himmat Singh 84, Yash Dhull 57, Rajvardhan Hangargekar 3/75). Maharashtra 324 and (target 178) 180/1 (Pavan Shah 87 not out, Kaushal Tambe 64 not out). Maharashtra won by 9 wickets. Points: Maharashtra 6 Delhi 0.
In Hyderabad: Hyderabad 395 and 258 (Tanay Thyagrajan 69, R sai Kishore 5/101). Tamil Nadu (Target 144) 510/4 decl and 108/1 in 7 overs (N Jagadeesan 59 not out off 22 balls). Points: TN 3. Hyderabad 1
In Guwahati: Assam 286 and 366/6 (Riyan Parag 95, Sibsankar Roy 75).
Saurashtra 492. Points: Saurashtra 3 Assam 1.
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