Vidarbha’s spin duo of Akshay Wakhare and Aditya Sarwate recorded a five-wicket haul each Railways were bundled for 161 on the second day of their Ranji Trophy
Nagpur: Skipper Faiz Fazal became the only second Vidarbha batter to score a century in both innings of a Ranji Trophy match on Thursday. Faiz notched-up 112 & 103 to put Vidarbha in the driver’s seat against Railways at VCA’s Jamtha Stadium in Nagpur. The first Vidarbha batter to do so was Amit Deshpande in 2001.
Gold Rate
Tuesday 28 Jan. 2025
Wakhare, Sarwate spin out Railways:
Earlier, Vidarbha’s spin duo of Akshay Wakhare and Aditya Sarwate recorded a five-wicket haul each as Vidarbha bundled out Railways for 161 to take a 52-run first innings lead on the second day of their Ranji Trophy match on Wednesday.
In their second innings, Vidarbha were 161 for two with an overall lead of 213 runs. With a combined tally of 339 wickets from 44 First-Class matches they played together, Wakhare-Sarwate pair derailed Railways’ innings post lunch session to help Vidarbha get an iron grip on the match. If Railways captain Karn Sharma spun the web around Vidarbha on the opening day, hosts’ Wakhare (60-5) and Sarwate (53-5) exhibited the art of spin bowling to fold the visitors’ innings, taking nine wickets in space of just over 12 overs.
Vidarbha captain Faiz Fazal inched towards his second hundred of the match. Playing with confidence, the 37-year old southpaw hit five boundaries for his 39th First-Class half century and was unbeaten on 82 in Ganesh Satish’s (8) company when the stumps were drawn. For Vidarbha, only Amit Deshpande has hit a century in each innings against Rajasthan (128 and 156*) in the 2000-01 season.
Atharv Taide (38) and Fazal added 97 runs for the second wicket to put Vidarbha in a position of strength after Wakhare-Sarwate heroics. Post lunch, it was Vidarbha all the way as Railways batters had no answers to Wahkare, Sarwate’s bowling. The second ball after lunch from Wakhare ignited Railways’ derailment as they fell like a pack of cards managing to add only 23 runs to their score of 138 for 2. Their innings folded for 161 in 55.2 overs. While this was Wakhare’s 21st five-wicket haul, Sarwate did so for the 17th time. Opener Vivek Singh was the only bright spot in Railways’ innings with 81 runs. His partnership of 103 with Pratham Singh (33) took their score past 150.
It was always going to be difficult on a known Jamtha track that has a record of helping spinners post lunch sessions. The same happened for the second consecutive day. Wakhare and Sarwate bowled tirelessly 39.2 overs between them for those 10 wickets. While Wakhare’s scalps had four leg before wickets, Sarwate managed to force the batsmen to nick the ball behind the stumps on three occasions.
Sharma holed up an easy catch at mid-on to Rajneesh Gurbani. Left-arm Sarwate’s first of the five wickets came on the last over of the first day. Two quick wickets post lunch session pegged Vidarbha back with Wakhare trapping the well-set Singh and new man Mohd Saif on successive deliveries. Lanky Wakhare, playing his 87th First-Class match, first sent dangerous looking Singh back and on the next delivery surprised Mohd Saif with a straighter one who looked a bit annoyed with the umpire’s decision. Sarwate then came into action with the scalp of wicketkeeper-batter UpendraYadav from the pavilion end. The ball went straight to brush Yadav’s pads, trapping him in front of stumps.
Railways captain Karn Sharma tried to ease the pressure but was caught by Rajneesh Gurbani at mid-on off Wakhare. From 129 for two, Railways were tottering at 146 for six by the 50th over. They further slipped miserably to finish at 161 in 55.2 overs. Seven Railways batters failed to reach the double digits out of which four could not even open their account as Wakhare and Sarwate hunted in pairs.
