Exciting finish on cards

By Paritosh Pramanik

VIDARBHA finally played like two-time Ranji champions!

Led by opener Atharva Taide, who cracked his fourth Ranji century on the second day, Vidarbha batters showed how to bat on the home turf, as they amassed 336 in their second innings against Andhra in the Ranji Trophy match at VCA Civil Lines ground on Sunday.

Chasing 318, Andhra were 79 for one when the play was called off due to bad light for the second time in three days making the final day an exciting one.

Spinner Harsh Dubey, who took four wickets in the first innings, managed to get rid of Hanuma Vihari (22), trapping him in front. Abhishek Reddy (38) and Shaikh Rasheed (18) were at the crease with Andhra still needing 239 and Vidarbha nine wickets for an outright victory.

After a dismal batting in the first innings, Vidarbha bowlers, led by premier spinner Akshay Wakhare (4-10) and Dubey (4-52) bundled out the visitors for 167, conceding a first innings lead of a meagre 49 runs.

In the second essay, Taide, resuming at 115, could add only three runs to his overnight score before his stumps were castled by PVSN Raju in the second over of the day.

But other batters, including Aman Mokhade (53), debutant Danish Malewar (63), professional Karun Nair (43) and captain Akshay Wadkar (40) built on the strong foundation put up by the opening pair of Taide and Mokhade who had added 137 runs.

After Mokhade’s departure, Malewar joined left-handed Taide in the middle to post 67 for the second wicket. Debutant Malewar grew in confidence and hit six beautiful boundaries in his 167-ball stay in the middle. Malewar was strong on his feet as he slammed an appreciation seeking backfoot boundary towards midwicket fence off spinner Lalth Mohan. Then, a couple of overs later, there was a late cut boundary towards third man off PVSN Raju. 

After Taide’s dismissal in the morning, Malewar, who celebrated his 21st birthday, on October 8, did not hesitate in playing reverse sweep as well. He and Nair batted well and the duo scored 78 for the third wicket as Vidarbha took control of the day. With Malewar scoring freely, Nair took chances and once stepped out to hit Lalith Mohan for a long off boundary. When the bowler pulled the ball back, Nair gently cut the ball towards the third man breaching the slip cordon. But Nair’s departure put brakes on the run flow and it was once again left to captain Wadkar to take the innings forward with the help of tail.

Wadkar once again played sheet-anchor’s role for his 40 runs and added valuable 40 runs with Wakhare. Umesh Yadav, despite being unable to walk, entertained the sparse crowd hitting three boundaries before getting out in the 103rd over.

Andhra overworked spinners with Lalith Mohan who bowled 17 overs on the trot and took three wickets while Tripurna Vijay bowled straight 15 overs for his four wickets.

In chase, Andhra started aggressively and scored 52 runs for the opening wicket. The fall of Vihari brought Shaikh Rasheed in the middle and he and Abhishek Reddy added 27 runs for the second wicket.

With the pitch assisting spinners and Wakhare and Dubey already sharing eight wickets in the first innings, Vidarbha will walk out in the middle on the final morning full of confidence to pocket an outright victory.