Majestic Jaffer stands tall, Vidarbha take control vs Delhi

Veteran Wasim Jaffer's masterclass was a purists' delight as Delhi's strategy of preparing a result-oriented seaming track boomeranged with defending champions Vidarbha taking control on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy encounter.

On a track where players half his age were not able to cross 20-run mark, the former India opener, who is a month shy from being 42, scored 83 in his team's meagre total of 179.

With ball jagging around all day in cold and windy conditions, former India U-19 seamer Aditya Thakare (4/14) polished the Delhi top-order in a five-over burst to reduce the hosts to 41 for 4 at stumps.

The match is expected to get over inside three days and Delhi will have to depend on the pair of Nitish Rana (3 batting) and Lalit Yadav (0 batting) to at least ensure a respectable first innings total.

Thakare got the bowl to swing both ways as the likes of captain Dhruv Shorey was deceived by away movement and Jonty Sidhu squared up by late swing.

The day belonged to Jaffer, who showed the technique to bat on a track where the trio of Ishant Sharma (3/45 in 14 overs), Simarjeet Singh (4/39 in 16.5 overs) and Kulwant Khejroliya (2/50 in 18 overs) made life miserable for other players.

Playing late and close to his body, Jaffer, coming in at No 3, followed the basics to the 'T' as his backfoot punch through the covers off Simrajeet and the off-drive off Ishant were visual treat.

There were 11 boundaries in all and he never really looked in trouble until Ishant bowled a beauty to clean him up. The next best score was 16 by Aditya Wakhare.

"The pitch was difficult to bat on. And when someone like Ishant, who is one of India's top fast bowlers, is bowling, you need to be careful," said Jaffer, who recently worked as a batting coach with Bangladesh's High Performance Academy and will also mentor KXIP batsmen in the coming IPL.

"On this track, it will be very difficult to bat in the fourth innings. I feel the ball will keep low and so it's good that we are not batting last on this track," said Jaffer.

He is already a coach and is still playing an active role in the Vidarbha set-up.

"We have a chance of Ranji Trophy hat-trick so some of us have stayed for the third season. As far as coaching is concerned, I love it and would like to pursue it once I am done with cricket. Already I am a mentor for the Vidarbha youngsters. I am the bridge between coach and players," said the man, who has two Test double hundreds against West Indies and Pakistan.

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