CAPTAIN WADKAR HITS CAREER-BEST 198

Vidarbha post huge 428 against Pondicherry

By Paritosh Pramanik

NAGPUR, Oct 13

A CRESTFALLEN Vidarbha captain Akshay Wadkar threw his head in disbelief. He knocked his bat onto his helmet and made a long, slow stroll back to the pavilion even as Pondicherry players patted his back. Just one mistake in his 509 minutes stay in the middle while batting proved costly as the skipper missed a well-deserved maiden double century by just two runs on Day Two of their Elite Group A Ranji Trophy match here at VCA’s Jamtha Stadium. 

The Vidarbha dressing room was ready to celebrate its captain’s landmark innings, the shutterbugs had loaded their mobile cameras zooming in towards Wadkar. But as the Vidarbha captain missed that sweep shot and the ball brushed his pads all went numb seeing the umpire raising his dreaded finger. Their hearts might have missed a beat watching Wadkar controlling his emotions, walking back.

Riding on Wadkar’s 198, his career’s best score, and Yash Rathod’s 134, Vidarbha posted a huge 428 from 129.4 overs in their first innings.

At stumps, Pondicherry were 107 for 1, still trailing by 321 runs.

Debutant Ritesh Gudge completed his half century and was batting strongly on 59 while veteran Nikhil Gangta was unbeaten on 32. Both the batters negotiated Vidarbha seamers and spinners and added unbeaten 92 runs for the second wicket.

But the day would be remembered for Wadkar’s gritty knock. Wadkar bossed Pondicherry bowlers. He played a perfect anchor’s role stitching another important partnership of 72 runs for the ninth wicket with Parth Rekhade (20) after posting 245 with Rathod earlier in the innings.

In his 363 balls innings, Wadkar showed his aggressive side as well picking 23 boundaries.

He once pulled a bouncer from Vijai Raja towards mid-wicket and in the same over cracked a backfoot punch towards square boundary to race to 192. He reached 197 with another four off the same bowler, this time the ball landing in the deep midwicket region.

But as luck would have it, the wicketkeeper-batter played an unnecessary sweep shot and missed it completely to be trapped leg before giving Pondicherry’s Sagar Udeshi his fourth wicket of the innings.

Wadkar was the last man out as Vidarbha’s innings folded after lunch.

Earlier in the morning, Vidarbha lost Rathod, who could add only three runs to his overnight score of 131. Some quick wickets in next few overs halted the hosts’ run flow. Harsh Dubey, Nachiket Bhute could not contribute much from their bats. In the meantime, captain Wadkar completed 150 runs with a boundary behind the stumps. By lunch, Vidarbha had added another 82 runs losing three wickets after resuming at the overnight score of 300-5. Rekhade and Wadkar frustrated Pondicherry bowlers further before the former was caught out on personal score of 20 runs. With tail wagging, Wadkar tried to achieve the double ton but missed the line completely. The dejected long walk back to pavilion would haunt him for some time.

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Playing that sweep was a mistake, admits Akshay after missing double ton

n By Paritosh Pramanik

HE PLAYED a saviour’s innings once again but Vidarbha captain Akshay Wadkar lost patience as he could not complete his maiden double century on second day of their Ranji Trophy match against Pondicherry at VCA’s Jamtha Stadium on Monday.

The sweep shot which he missed halted Wadkar’s fine innings.

“I am very happy with this innings. It is my career’s highest score so I am really happy to better my previous score. But yes, I made a mistake. In the entire innings I had defended those deliveries and I should have done the same. We were the last pair, I went for that sweep shot ... I should have played it straight or had gone for a big shot ... but I played a sweep...,” explained Wadkar after the end of day’s play.

Wadkar and Rathod put up a game-saving 245 runs partnership for the sixth wicket and Wadkar said they did not plan anything extraordinary. “We wanted to bat cautiously. We curbed some shots just to rebuild our innings. We wanted to bat through the middle session as during that period runs come easily, that the trend of this ground. Our partnership grew and they (Pondicherry bowlers) started giving us runs. That’s what we wanted,” said the captain of the partnership.

“Our left-right combination also worked because the opponents were unable to set the field and we were running singles and doubles. They had to continuously change the field. It worked for us,” added Wadkar.

On containing Pondicherry on the third day, Wadkar said, “Its just a matter of time. One breakthrough and we will be all over Pondicherry. Scoring runs will become very difficult on this pitch. It will definitely assist spinners from here on and Parth and Harsh would trouble them,” Wadkar signed off.