UP struggle at 2/32, Vidarbha post huge 523

LUCKNOW : Over the last few years, Vidarbha have been a force to reckon with in domestic cricket, especially with their consecutive Ranji Trophy triumph in 2018 and 2019, and the credit for such a huge success goes to former India stumper-batter Chandrakant Pandit, who coached the side to reach to this level.

Pandit, a veteran of five Tests and 36 ODIs, left Vidarbha’s job and joined Madhya Pradesh in 2020, but his lessons to every Vidarbha cricketer to play with courage and fight till the last have been doing wonders even now.

On Wednesday, Vidarbha battered showed courage and determination to handle the situation well against two-time champions Uttar Pradesh on the second day of their four-day Under-25 Col Ck Nayudu Trophy quarterfinal at Vadodara.

Playing patently, Vidarbha batters made the Uttar Pradesh’s bowling look like quite mediocre on a trick surface of the Alembic 2 Cricket Ground and posted a huge total of 523 in 165.1 overs in their first innings. This wasn’t all as their bowlers too came up with a fine show, bagging two quick wickets to leave, Uttar Pradesh struggling at 2/32 in 12 overs.

Both openers Siddharth Yadav and UP’s “best bet” Aanjaneya Suryavanshi were back in the pavilion, and Sawan Singh (4) and Sameer Rizvi (6) were at the crease at the draw of stumps. Yadav was trapped leg before wicket by Bhute in the seven over, whereas Suryavanshi was caught by Harsh Dubey off Shanmesh in the next over.

Now, Uttar Pradesh need 492 runs to take the first innings lead with eight wickets in hands, and it still seems to hurricane task for the side, which desperately used as many eight bowlers to control Vidarbha batters in their first innings, but to no avail.

Resuming at the overnight score of 270/4, Vidarbha batters showed no let up to their performance, and kept enjoying a mediocre bowling attack. Y Rathod went on scoring his season best 154, which came off 338 balls with the help of 21 fours and a six, whereas other overnight keeper-batter S Wath made 71 in 160 balls with the help of 10 boundaries. The two stitched together 150 runs for the fifth-wicket.

The two departed in quick succession as Watch was caught by Siddharth Yadav off Aquib Khan, whereas Rathod was run out on a director throw from Sameer Choudhary, but there was no relief to Uttar Pradesh bowlers as Harsh Dubey and P Rekhade too hammered them well all around the ground.

Before being caught by keeper Pranjal Saini off Kunal Yadav, stylish batter Dubey stroked 165-ball 103, which contained 14 boundaries and two sixes, whereas Rekhade made 68 in 150 balls with seven fours. The two added 156 runs for the eight-wicket.

Uttar Pradesh bowlers kept struggling even to take Vidarbha’s last wicket as Rekhade along with Praful Hinge (19*, 10b, 1x4, 2x6) collected 32 runs for the last-wicket.

Last-minute entrant Aaquib Khan remained the most successful bowler for Uttar Pradesh, bagging 4/99, whereas other pacer Kunal Yadav finished with 3/116. Offie Rishabh Bansal (1/79) and Ankit Choudhary (1/109) shared two wickets between them.*