THEY have three out of three victories in their bag and are sitting at the top of Group B with 18 points, but unbeaten Vidarbha’s ‘real’ Ranji Trophy ‘starts’ against Himachal Pradesh at Vidarbha Cricket Association’s Civil Lines Stadium from Wednesday. The three teams they have defeated were relatively easy who are now lingering at the bottom of the table with Uttarakhand (6 points), Pondicherry (1) and Andhra (0). However, the next ‘Big Four’ will pose real threat to Vidarbha’s progress in coming days. First up is Himachal Pradesh who are at the third position with two wins and a loss. They will next meet second placed Gujarat (Nov 13-16) at VCA Jamtha Stadium before a huge 70-day Ranji break. With BCCI organising white ball tournaments during this period, Vidarbha will have to adjust immediately as they will end their Ranji league phase with an away match against Rajasthan (4th in Group B, Jan 23 at Jaipur) and Hyderabad (5th, Jan 30 at Nagpur).

 

The immediate target is Himachal for Akshay Wadkar-led side and the team is confident of doing well on their home turf. “Our tournament starts now. We have defeated the team which are at the bottom of the table. But from here on all the four sides are tough and we will have to play with confidence. Any team which wins from here will qualify for the knock-outs,” Wadkar told ‘The Hitavada’ on the eve of their fourth match of the season, at VCA Civil Lines ground. A fresh pitch would be used for the match and captain Wadkar believes that it would help the seamers more initially. Vidarbha openers will have give a good start as their partnership will lay the foundation for other batters. “I think we should post around 300 runs in the first innings on this wicket. Anything less than that won’t help our cause,” stated Wadkar. Vidarbha openers Athrava Taide and Dhruv Shorey have a quite start to the tournament. While Taide has only one century against his name (118 against Andhra), Shorey who missed the opening encounter has scored 6, 1, 35, 59 in two matches. Vidarbha started with Aman Mokhade in the first match and he hit a half century (53) in the second innings against Andhra after a duck in the firs innings. In the next two games, Mokhade, who came one-down could not score big (1, 11, 14, 6) and will have to pull up his socks against quality side like Himachal. Vidarbha will get the services of Karun Nair who was rested in the previous match due to finger injury. The middle order batter will be eager to continue his Maharaja Trophy form where he was the highest scorer.

 

“They (Karun Nair and Dhruv Shorey) are great batters. However, sometimes you get a chance to score runs fast and sometimes you don’t. I am sure both will come good in the coming matches,” Wadkar said of his batters. Wadkar hinted that seamers will play a big role against Himachal and Aditya Thakare will be the go-to man for the skipper. Thakare has given important breakthroughs in previous matches and on match eve, he was able to beat the batters and was managing to move the ball sharply in the nets. With Umesh Yadav still recovering from his injury, Thakare will have to shoulder the burden along withPraful Hinge or Nachiket Bhute. “Umesh is still not fully fit and won’t be playing this match. But I am confident of our bowlers who have taken 20 wickets in past three matches,” Wadkar pointed out. “Spinner Harsh Dubey is a great learner. He adapts to the conditions very fast.

 

Whatever opportunities he got, he has delivered. I am sure he would get ample matches this year which would be beneficial for us,” Wadkar said while praising the tweaker who took 51 wickets from 11 games so far. Vidarbha have retained the same side for Himachal game. As for Himachal, they would rely on experienced Rishi Dhawan who has hit a huge 195 against Andhra. Other batters Ankit Kalsi, Mukul Negi, Akash Vasisht, to name a few, all have scored runs in the previous games. With Himachal scoring over 400 runs in earlier matches shows their strong batting line-up. Vidarbha bowlers will have to be at their brutal best against this quality batting side if they want to win their ‘opening’ match.