Hindustan Times (Lucknow)

Karnewar ton gives Vidarbha lead

- HT Correspond­ent sportsdesk@hindustant­imes.com

NAGPUR: Akshay Karnewar struck a fighting century to steer Ranji Trophy champions Vidarbha to the first- innings lead and hand them the advantage against Rest of India on Day 3 of the Irani Cup tie on Thursday.

Karnewar hit 102 (133b, 13x4, 2x6) batting at No 8 to lead a brilliant lower order rally that saw the home team finish 425 all out, a 95-run lead after Rest were dismissed for 330 on the second day.

He raised 79 runs for the seventh wicket with wicketkeep­er Akshay Wadkar, who scored 73 (139b, 14x4), and 76 for the eighth wicket with Akshay Wakhare (20). The Vidarbha tail frustrated the Ajinkya Rahane-led side with 120 runs added for the last three wickets with Rajneesh Gurbani remaining unbeaten on 28. Rahul Chahar, the left-arm spinner from Rajasthan, took 4/112, including the wicket of Karnewar.

With two days left, Vidarbha will fancy their chances of forcing an outright win like they did in the Ranji final against Saurashtra. However, they will face extra pressure as they will have to bat last on a pitch aiding spin.

Rest wiped out the deficit, reaching 102 for two at stumps, a lead of seven runs. Hanuma Vihari, the first-innings centurion, was unbeaten on 40 at the close with Rahane on 25.

Opener Mayank Agarwal, dismissed for 95 in the first innings, was out for 27 after fellow opener, Punjab’s Anmolpreet Singh (6), failed to make amends after being dismissed for 15 in the first innings. It reduced Rest to 46/2 before Vihari and Rahane raised 56 for the unbroken third wicket.

Both openers fell trying to play attacking shots against spinners. Anmolpreet went first, holing out left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate to long-on. Mayank fell in almost similar fashion, stepping out to off-spinner Akshay Wakhare only to be caught at long-off.

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