Vidarbha’s Capital gains

By Anupam Soni :

Ganesh, Wagh excel in Vidarbha’s innings and 93 runs win

MUCH before they tamed the team from National Capital to lift their maiden Ranji Trophy on first day of the year 2018, Vidarbha had thrashed Delhi by an innings inside three days at home. The likes of Indian stars Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir were kept subdued as Vidarbha dominated a better part of their Ranji Trophy Group B league match at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Jamtha, Nagpur in January 2015. When Delhi skipper Gambhir called it wrong at the toss, Vidarbha’s Tamil Nadu professional and captain Subramaniam Badrinath decided to have a first go.

Shrikant Wagh

Seasoned opener Faiz Fazal walked along with just two-match old Sachin Katariya as the two took guard. Delhi started with left-arm seamers Pradeep Sangwan and Pawan Suyal. In his fourth over of the morrow, Sangwan caught Faiz (11) off his own bowling. Vidarbha’s new signing of the year Karnataka’s Ganesh Satish walked in. Ganesh-Katariya took the score from 16 to 46 before a double strike jolted them. Left-arm orthodox Manan Sharma first had Katariya (21) caught by Unmukt Chand and the same combination saw the back of Badrinath (0) two balls later. Ganesh was joined by Shalabh Shrivastava and the two made sure the team had more things than fingernails for lunch.

The two opened up in the post-lunch session and completed hundred runs for the fourth wicket. After they had added 122 runs with Shrivastava’s half century, the batsman became the victim of another left-arm spinner Varun Sood. Ganesh and left-handed Ravi Jangid (18) were together for 25 runs before the latter became offie Shivam Sharma’s first of the five scalps. Another southpaw Sumit Ruikar (33) joined Ganesh and stitched an important 64 runs partnership for the sixth wicket. In a classic off-spinner’s dismissal, Shivam removed Ruikar caught by wicketkeeper Rahul Yadav.

Meanwhile, Ganesh, who was using his feet very well against the spinners, duly completed his century. By end of the opening day, Vidarbha were well placed at 274-6 in 94 overs with Ganesh (119*) and Vidarbha stumper Urvesh Patel (8*) holding fort. With an aim of a big first innings score, Vidarbha started the second day on a cautious note. Ganesh looked like he picked things up from where he left earlier evening and was confidence personified. When the team had just crossed the three-hundred mark, Patel was trapped by Manan. Vidarbha all-rounder southpaw Shrikant Wagh (24; 27b, 1x4, 2x4) and Ganesh further collected 54 runs. When Ganesh was ninth out, he had made 163 runs hitting 14 fours. The batsman was there at the crease for 413 minutes and faced 308 balls.

With batsmen in attacking mode, Shivam Sharma got lucky and picked all the last three wickets to fall. Vidarbha were all out for 370 in 118 overs. “That was my first year for Vidarbha. I was keen to do well and I was in good form. I did well in the first two games of the season also. We needed a win to be in contention to qualify. Initially, we were in a spot of bother. The wicket was little bit slowish. I took some time to adapt but I play spinners better and played more on the backfoot. After I got to know nature of pitch, I played more freely. We then had good partnerships — first with Shalabh an then with Ruikar. Those partnerships were key to get good score,” said man of the match Ganesh while recalling that game. “We were confident that it was a good score but were not sure whether it was a match-winning score. We thought we would get the first innings lead but were not sure that we would be able to get them out twice,” he added. Delhi opened with Unmukt Chand, who had led the India Under-19 team to the U-19 Cricket World Cup victory in 2012, and Gambhir.

Vidarbha went into the match with just one specialist seamer in Wagh. He shared the new ball with Faiz and the two kept Delhi openers calm for some time. When the spinners were introduced, Gambhir (6), in his attempt to break the shackles, was stumped on the bowling of Vidarbha’s another professional from Gujarat left-arm orthodox Rakesh Dhurv. In eleven overs, the visitors were 13-1. Lanky off-spinner Akshay Wakhare made it 16-2 in 13.2 overs. Chand (21) and Mithun Manhas (27) took the team past fifty. Wagh, in fresh spell, removed both in an identical fashion three runs apart and Delhi were reeling at 58-4. He soon sent back Milind Kumar and Dhurv struck twice. An indisposed Sehwag (21) came at number ten and became Dhurv’s (4-34) fourth victim.

Wagh (5-46) had his fourth lbw to get rid of Sangwan and then cleaned up lastman Suyal for nought to complete his five-wicket haul. From overnight 133-8, Delhi were shot out for 154 on the third morning. “I was in good form that season bowling and batting well. And that was a typical Jamtha track, slow and flat. I remember, at lunch I asked our captain (Badrinath) to let me bowl with the semi-new ball and that I will try to reverse it. I was in very good shape those seasons and straightaway found the rhythm and had Chand lbw,” said Wagh of his bowling in the first innings. “I also clean bowled Sehwag but umpire (Shastri) called upstairs to check no ball as he was not sure. Anyway, I got him in the second innings,” said Wagh proudly.

“Shrikant bowled really well in the first innings. He bowled his cutters and cross-seam stuff very well on that dry wicket. We bowled them out for a low score and that put pressure on them,” said Ganesh. With a first innings lead of 216 runs, Vidarbha decided to impose follow on. “We knew that one extra point was going to be crucial so we decided to enforce the follow on. Also we had not fielded for a long time and were not that tired. We felt the wicket was deteriorating fast and it was a sensible thing to ask them bat again,” said Ganesh on the decision to enforce follow on.

Wagh (3-44) gave team the kind of start they needed by shattering the sticks of Chand. All the bowlers — Dhurv (3-17), Faiz (2-21) and Wakhare (2-32) came to party as Delhi crumbled once again. Sehwag top-scored with 41 in team’s 123. Vidarbha completed a crushing innings and 93 runs victory. “When you are playing against India players, you tend to raise that bar to show that you are good enough to compete with and beat them. It is very satisfying doing well against top teams. In fact, you remember those knocks that came against good opponents rather than big scores coming in irrelevant games. Tough games and tough situations always bring out the best,” Ganesh signed off.