Rathod smashes 3rd successive ton

 

Vidarbha need eight wickets for outright victory over Himachal

By Paritosh Pramanik

YOU can’t be benevolent against a batter of Yash Rathod’s stature. The moment you give him space and chance, the southpaw grabs the opportunity and overpowers you.

Same happened on Friday when butter-fingered Himachal Pradesh dropped Rathod twice and paid heavily for their follies.

Getting reprieves, first when on 22 at short-leg and then on 57 by wicketkeeper, Rathod went on to hit his third successive century of the season, becoming only the second batter to do so after former captain Faiz Fazal, for Vidarbha.

Rathod swept aside the bad memories of Andhra game and slammed 128 against Himachal Pradesh on the third day of Vidarbha’s Ranji Trophy match as they posted a huge 575 at VCA, Civil Lines ground on Friday.

Rathod’s century, apart from captain Akshay Wadkar’s 67, birthday-boy Aditya Thakare’s rearguard heroics (36), and Akshay Wakhare’s 25 gave Vidarbha a huge 268 runs first innings lead after Himachal had posted 307.

At stumps, Himachal were 51 for two, still trailing by 217 runs.

An outright win is in Vidarbha’s sight as they need only eight more wickets on a fourth-day track which will definitely help the spinners.

Starting the day at the overnight score of 283-2, the hosts lost centurion Dhruv Shorey (125) and Karun Nair (85) early but Rathod and Wadkar added 107 runs for the fifth wicket as Vidarbha took complete control of the game. There was a bit of trouble for the hosts when Divesh Sharma took three wickets in an over immediately after the lunch break to tilt the momentum in Himachal’s favour. From 423 for five, Vidarbha crumbled to 423 for seven. His first scalp was captain Wadkar caught at second slip by Prashant Chopra. Harsh Dubey chopped one back into his stumps on the third delivery of the over and then Nachiket Bhute was caught by keeper Shubham Arora giving Sharma three wickets. But Rathod and Thakare did the rebuilding job and added 89 run for the eighth wicket to frustrate Himachal.

Rathod, who had scored a 135 and 56 against Uttarakhand in the last match, continued his purple patch with another brilliant knock. He completed his well-deserved century hitting a boundary towards long on fence. The celebration was animated. With his arms fully stretched, 24-year-old Rathod ran towards pavilion and acknowledged the team and supporters sitting in the opposite side stands.

Rathod’s knock had seven boundaries and three sixes two of which were pulled over fine leg fence off Divesh Sharma on successive deliveries. He and Wakhare added another 57 runs for the ninth wicket as the lead continued to swell.

His entertaining innings came to an end after tea when he nicked a Mukul Negi’s straight delivery to wicketkeeper Arora. 

During the match, Wakhare also completed 1000 runs in First-Class cricket.