Vidarbha to go for kill vs Delhi after Sathish ton
NEW DELHI: Ganesh Sathish smashed his 15th first-class hundred as defending champions Vidarbha produced a powerpacked batting performance raising hopes of an outright victory over a depleted Delhi after third day’s play in the Ranji Trophy on Tuesday.
The seasoned campaigner scored 100 off 92 balls and added 148 runs for the unbroken fourth wicket stand with Akshay Wadkar (70 off 82 balls) in little over 24 overs.
Delhi, playing without an injured Ishant Sharma, looked listless on a placid track where Vidarbha set a target of 347. Delhi were 10/0 at stumps.
For the hosts, a poor show in this match will certainly dent their hopes of qualifying among top five teams from the crosspool (group A and B). On the other hand, Vidarbha’s outright win will be a giant stride towards quarter-final.
While Faiz Fazal (43 off 68 balls) and Sanjay Raghunath (57 off 153 balls) gave a steady start, Sathish, who hit 11 fours and two sixes got the advantage of facing friendly seam-up stuff from Nitish Rana and part-time off-spin from Lalit Yadav. Wadkar hit seven fours and the moment Sathish reached his hundred, Vidarbha made a declaration. innings.
Having made his debut against Andhra three matches ago after Ashok Dinda was sacked for misconduct, Akash Deep took two wickets in his first two overs before his senior partner Mukesh Kumar (1/29) and Shahbaz got into the act.
Having lost to Vidarbha inside two days in their last outing, Bengal with this bonus point victory (19 points from five matches) now have bounced back in contention for a knockout berth.
Bengal will take on Delhi at Eden Gardens from January 27, which will be their last home match.
“We played immaculate cricket. Wicket didn’t turn at all when we expected it to turn. Hats off to our pacers they bowled with a lot of venom. We won the match yesterday itself by taking five wickets,” coach and mentor Arun Lal said.