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Thu, 28th Apr 2011  New Delhi: It may be too early to link Ishant Sharma's bowling figures of 5/12 against the Deccan Chargers to a possible comeback into the Indian cricket team, but he sure did give a glimpse of what can be expected from him in the near future.
A score of 129 is by no means a match winning score, but Ishant provided his skipper Kumar Sangakkara the perfect spell which led to Deccan's 55-run thrashing of Kochi Tuskers Kerala who were bowled out for 74 in match 32 of IPL-4 at the Nehru stadium on Wednesday.
His victims included the prized scalps of Kochi skipper Mahela Jayawardene and Aussie batsman Brad Hodge who was bowled for a second ball duck.
Considering that the former Knight Riders pacer has had nothing much to write home about in the ongoing competition, his performance on Wednesday was in some ways a bolt from the blue.
Under the scanner for quite a while now because of his sudden loss of form after a dream start to his international career, Ishant exhibited pace, bounce and swing which left the opposition flabbergasted.
Having the measure of the mighty Australians in their backyard and following it up with an even better performance at home is no mean feat.
Ishant did exactly that and more in 2008, a year when it seemed that the Delhi paceman could do no wrong, a year in which he sent down a delivery at 149.5 km/h and seemed to be the next best thing in India's pace bowling department since the legendary Kapil Dev.
But that was then, things have not been all that flash since then for the man who had earned the reputation of a tearaway fast bowler like India had never known before.
Form is temporary but class is permanent and Ishant Sharma would want to believe that it's just a question of rediscovering his old self to re-ignite his up and down career.  | 
