Vid face Baroda challenge

By Paritosh Pramanik

Nov 16, 2025

THE cool November breeze might have brought the temperature down by a few degree Celsius here in Nagpur but come Sunday, the intensity will be on high from Vidarbha cricketers when they lock horns with Baroda in the fifth round of their Elite Group A Ranji Trophy match at VCA's Jamtha Stadium.

The reigning champions Vidarbha are sitting on the top of Group A with 19 points in the bag. The team is on a roll with two wins and as many draws. Against Baroda, the Akshay Wadkar-led side will aim to continue their aggressive style of play and go for another outright win before the tournament takes a break for Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

The three-time Ranji champions’ batting looks solid with Aman Mokhade being in rich form clobbering three hundreds and a half century from four games. 

The right-handed opener single-handedly gave Vidarbha the start they needed to put pressure on their opponents. Professionals Dhruv Shorey and R Samarth have shown their immense talent and are manning the middle order along with run-machine Yash Rathod and captain Wadkar. The only worry for Vidarbha camp is the form of opener Atharva Taide who, after hitting a match-winning century in Irani Cup, could not muster a reasonable score. In the last three games Taide could score 18, 31, 1, 12. He will have to bounce back against Baroda and go into Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament with runs under his belt.

The bowling department has done pretty well without two premier bowlers Yash Thakur and Harsh Dubey who are with India ‘A’ squad playing in the Rising Stars Asia Cup in Doha.

Pacers Nachiket Bhute, Praful Hinge, Darshan Nalkande, Lalit Yadav and spinners Parth Rekhade and Gaurav Farde have shown immense talent against Odisha and would love to continue their rich form at home.

For Baroda, who are at the fifth position with nine points, this match would be an important one for them going ahead in the competition.

They started well with a seven-wicket win over Odisha but then managed two draws and one of their matches was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

Their batting will be spearheaded by Shaswat Rawat. The other batters include, Mitesh Patel, Shivalik Sharma who all have centuries under their belts. The bowling department will be led by Atit Sheth, Rasik Salam, Bhargav Bhatt and Mahesh Pittiya who would try to put Vidarbha batters under pressure in their home.

The home team had long nets on the eve of the match and all looked in good nick during the training session.

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Did hosts get track of their liking?

n By Paritosh Pramanik

The pitch, used during the Irani Cup match, will be utilised for Vidarbha-Baroda encounter starting Sunday. 

Playing on that track, Vidarbha had defeated Rest of India by 93 runs to claim their third Irani Cup title in October.

Whether Vidarbha wanted to play on the same track is a big question, if one goes by the interaction between BCCI’s neutral curator Rakesh Kumar and Vidarbha coach Usman Ghani.

Ghani and captain Akshay Wadkar had a long look at the 22-yard strip on the eve of the match. The two were in the middle for nearly an hour. Later, an animated discussion took place between Rakesh Kumar from Chandigarh and Ghani with VCA curator Abhijeet Piprode also joining them beside the match track. 

Going by the way the discussion took place, it seemed that Vidarbha team management was unhappy with the track. Neutral curator was seen trying to give an explanation about the way the track was prepared.

“It will be the same track on which the Irani Cup was played in October. It is a good strip which will assist both, the spinners as well as the pacers,” was all Vidarbha coach Ghani had to say. Captain Wadkar said that the pitch might get ease out in later part of the game. “It is a good pitch. I think it will get better as the game progresses,” he said, without delving into what transpired in the middle with the curator.