Pujara fails, Sarwate puts Vidarbha in pole position
calm and technically sound Cheteshwar Pujara for the second time in the match resembled a cat on a hot tin roof against left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate on a challenging pitch as the Ranji final hit the home stretch on Wednesday.
After his rearguard 49 – innings top-score -- to help holders Vidarbha set a 206-run target, Sarwate picked three early wickets to leave Saurashtra wobbling at 58/5 at stumps on the fourth day. He took five wickets in the first innings.
He got both openers, first-innings centurion Snell Patel and Harvik Desai, before trapping Pujara leg-before for a five-ball duck in the final session. Umesh Yadav got rid of Arpit Vasavada, and just before stumps, off-spinner Akshay Wakhare bowled the seasoned Sheldon Jackson with one that turned and kept low.
Snell Patel was forced into playing one that spun and Wasim Jaffer at slip took the catch. Desai’s outside edge trying to work it to the leg ended in a return catch. Pujara, after failing in the first innings, was under pressure with the sparse crowd chanting ‘cheater’, for his not walking in semis against Karnataka.
With fielders around him, Pujara hoped to wriggle out by working the ball away. He stepped out a couple of times but couldn’t clear the cordon, once even getting an inside edge. “He is starting to use his feet,” a Vidarbha fan shouted anxiously.
It was as if the first innings dismissal – edge to slip -- was on his mind. This time, he played for the turn, but it kept straight and struck the pad. From 19/0, Saurashtra had their backs to the wall.
Sarwate, among the grittiest players for Vidarbha, was turning it on again and making life hell for Saurashtra, who are eyeing their first Ranji title.
Earlier in the day, it was Sarwate’s effort with the bat that
helped the hosts post a competitive total. After securing a fiverun lead, Vidarbha began the second innings slowly, and though scoring picked up on Tuesday evening, the batsmen again went into their shell in the morning.
If the plan was to bat out, having taken a five-run first innings lead, it failed against tight bowling spearheaded by Dharmandrasinh Jadeja. But Sarwate batted for most of the first two sessions, adding 29 for the seventh wicket, 13 for the eighth, 31 for the ninth and 22 for the last wicket, farming the strike with Rajneesh Gurbani (3*).