With six points from the first game in their bag, Vidarbha will look to consolidating their position in Group D when they take on Tripura at Vidarbha Cricket Association’s Civil Lines ground in the Ranji Trophy match starting Tuesday.

High on confidence after their crushing 194 runs win over Railways at the Jamtha Stadium in their season opener, Vidarbha, under the leadership of Faiz Fazal, will be a team to beat for Tripura.

It will also be a monumental match for skipper Fazal who would be playing his 100th Ranji Trophy match for Vidarbha. So far, veteran Fazal has played 129 First-Class matches which include 99 Ranji matches for Vidarbha, 15 for Railways, 12 Duleep Trophy ties, two Irani Cups for Vidarbha and one for Rest of India.

The senior batter is getting better with every passing game and season. He scored a century in each innings against Railways thus becoming only the second player for Vidarhha to do so after his former opening partner stumper Amit Deshpande.

But Vidarbha top order, barring Fazal, will have to pull up their socks after their mediocore performance in the first game. R Sanjay, Atharv Taide Ganesh Satish, all got starts but could not convert them. It was good to see wicketkeeper-batter Akshay Wadkar scoring a cenruty in the second innings which helped Vidarbha post a huge total.

If Fazal and Wadkar shone with the bat, Aditya Sarwate’s all-round show could not be ignored. The left-arm orthodox scored a half century in the first innings against Railways and then grabbed nine wickets in the match which was instrumental in home side’s victory.

Similarly, experienced spinner Akshay Wakhare, too, bowled exceptionally well to grab nine wickets in the match.

In all probablility, Vidarbha would not like to tinker with the winning combination and would field the same XI with Rajneesh Gurbani, Yash Thakur and Aditya Thakre being the three pacers.

Vidarbha will be buoyed by the fact that they have never lost to Tripura in the competition. Tripura will walk into the field with confidence after their first innings lead against Gujarat in their season opener. Sridam Paul, Sudip Chaterjee and Rajat Dey, all have runs under their belts with half centuries against Gujarat and will be aiming to continue in same vein against Vidarbha. Captain and former India stumper Wriddhiman Saha will bolster their middle order.

As for their bowling, medium pacer Manisankar Mura Singh, who took 10 wickets against Gujarat, will try to halt Vidarbha’s run machines—Fazal and Wadkar.