By Paritosh Pramanik
IT was panning out as a dull draw in the morning and afternoon sessions but as shadows lengthened at VCA’s Jamtha Stadium on Saturday, the Ranji Trophy match between Vidarbha and Gujarat turned out to be a dramatic one by the time the last over of the day and match was bowled.
Vidarbha were at the doorsteps of taking another six points (or might be seven) but had to settle with just three as Gujarat denied them an outright win at the fag end of the day scoing 237-9 from 81 overs.
With this draw Vidarbha consolidated their position at the top of Group B in points table with 28 points followed by Himachal who have 21 and Gujarat 19.
Resuming at 512-8, Vidarbha batted out Gujarat to post a mammoth 545-9 (decl) and took a big 202 runs lead after batting for around half an hour on the fourth morning.
As per captain Akshay Wadkar’s admission, they wanted to bat only once in the match. They thought that the lead of 202 would be enough for the bolwers, looking at their previous wins where they had taken all 20 wicktes in the match.
But the pendulum swung back and forth and when Vidarbha thought they will record their fifth win of the season, Gujarat tail wagged.
The hosts managed to reduce Gujarat to 73-3 at lunch but Umang Rohit Kumar (50) rebuilt their innings twice. First, he and Manan Hingrajia (19) put up 36 runs for the third wicket and then Jaymeet Patel (21) joined Umang in the middle to frustrate Vidarbha with 49 runs for the fourth wicket.
Vidarbha bounced back in the game with the wicket of Umang in the 32nd over with Akshay Wakhare forcing him to baloon a catch to Harsh Dubey.
However, wicketkeeper Het Patel (77*) and Jaymeet ensured that they take tea at 161 for five putting up 35 runs for the fifth wicket.
But Wakhare (1-76) tilted the match back in Vidarbha’s favour castling the wicket of Jaymeet.
Vidarbha regrouped after the break and changed their plans by introducing part-timer Atharv Taide from Pavilion end. And the left-hander immediatey gave Vidarbha the breakthrough with the wicket of Gujarat captain Chintan Gaja (4) who was caught by Dubey.
The victory was in sight and Vidarbha put pressure on Gujarat tailenders. But Het Patel was solid at one end denying Vidarbha bowlers his prized wicket.
Vidarbha used another part-timer in Karun Nair and he stunned the opponents with two wickets in two deliveries.
He first got well-set Patel beautifully caught by Player of the Match Danish Malewar at forward short leg who dived in front to pounce the red cherry.
The next delivery, Arzan Nagwaswalla was trapped in front. From 202 for 7, Gujarat were lingering at 217 for nine. With remaining overs of the day reducing fast, Vidarbha used all the tricks but Siddharth Desai (9*) and Tejas Patel (15*) survived some anxious moments to deny Vidarbha chance to bat again and score the meagre 35 runs.
Captain Wadkar was dejected for not getting six points with win but said that even three is important.
“Yes, six points would have been much better but we would take three happily,” Wadkar said after the match.
He said that there was hardly anything for the spinners and only the roughs created by the bowlers’ footmarks came handy.
“There was nothing for spinners in this pitch. Whatever help we got was from the footmarks only. We were aware of this nature (of pitch) hence we extended our batting today. We wanted to take our lead to 200 plus runs,” he said.
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