‘Dubey was informed of bowling long spell’

 

 

Vidarbha captain Akshay Wadkar knows the VCA pitch as the back of his hand. He was aware that the pitch will assist spinners in the fourth innings and once pacer Umesh Yadav was ruled out to bowl in the match, he huddled in with his two spinners —Akshay Wakhare and Harsh Dubey— to re-plan the plot. Expectedly, left-armer spinner Dubey was forced to bowl for extended spell. And Dubey, who has just nine First Class Games under his belt, did not disappoint his captain. The spinner took a match-haul of eight wickets to help Vidarbha thrash Andhra in their opening match. Wadkar said that he (Dubey) was informed well in advance about bowling for an extended session. “After Umesh got injured the pressure was on the four bowlers—two seamers and two spinners.

 

With Andhra having most right handers, Dubey was the only man to do the job for us,” said Wadkar after the match. “We had informed him that he will have to bowl an extended spell and he was eager to bowl long. He was getting turn and bounce also, and we are happy that he did the job for us,” said Wadkar. In the second innings, Dubey bowled 15 overs continuously while Wakhare bowled 14 at a stretch. Wadkar was happy with the start and said the win would help in the future matches. “It is a good start and will help us in the coming matches. We were down in the first innings but came back strongly. The bowlers as well as the batters, specially Atharva Taide, batted well in the second innings to post a challenging target.” said the Vidarbha skipper.