Advantage Vidarbha

By Anupam Soni

EXCEPT for conceding that slender 22-run lead, most part of the third day belonged to Vidarbha, who now need 133 more runs with all the ten second innings wickets intact to win their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A opener against Services at VCA’s Civil Lines ground. Starting the penultimate day 50 runs behind with last two pairs to bat, Vidarbha’s India player Umesh Yadav used the long handle scoring an important 32 to limit the lead to 22. In response to Services’ 241, Vidarbha made 219. Vidarbha bowlers, led by lanky pacer Aditya Thakare, who snared four wickets for 44 runs, then skittled out the visitors for 155 in 54.3 overs to set themselves a very gettable target of 178 runs. Seasoned opener Faiz Fazal (20*; 38b, 2x4), and partner R Sanjay (25*; 46b, 3x4) knocked off 45 of those runs without being separated and the team will be hoping that they carry on in the same vein on the last morning.

Faiz, who missed out in the first innings, flicked Varun Choudhary for three runs on first ball of the innings and partner Sanjay struck a delightful cover drive on last ball to signal Vidarbha intentions. Sanjay was lucky to stay till the end as Shubham Rohilla dropped a sitter at second slip on the bowling of Nitin Yadav when he batter was just ten. After the respite, Sanjay hit a pair of boundaries even as Faiz also opened up to gather two fours including an edged one.

Earlier in the day, Services failed to get any partnership going as wickets fell at regular intervals. Thakare removed Ravi Chauhan and Anshul Gupta in his first spell as the visitors were 37-2. Darshan Nalkande’s double blows brought them on backfoot. He induced edges from Vineet Dhankhar and first innings top-scorer Rajat Paliwal (14; 46b, 2x4) which were gleefully accepted by Akshay Wadkar. Opener Shubham Rohilla (52; 97b, 7x4) and Lovekesh Bansal (10; 29b, 1x4) looked like getting a partnership going but during a probing spell, Yadav set them both beautifully. Left-arm orthodox Aditya Sarvate helped himself with a couple of wickets and Thakare finished off the innings by trapping Choudhary who had hit for an overhead six the previous ball.