Nagpur: Firing the opening salvo, Vidarbha defeated Andhra Pradesh by 74 runs in their opening encounter in Ranji Trophy match being played at VCA’s Civil Lines Ground on Monday.
At lunch, with Andhra cruising at 163-1, Vidarbha’s hope of a win was slowly evaporating. But the 11 men in the middle were confident and had belief in each other. The lunch break helped Vidarbha regroup and the two-time Ranji champions showed tremendous courage to take nine wickets in the second session to snatch a 74 runs outright victory against Andhra on Monday.
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The second new ball did the trick as pacer Aditya Thakare (4-74) snared three wickets in one over to floor Andhra and help Vidarbha collect six points from their opening encounter. Thakare broke the backbone of Andhra first by sending captain Ricky Bhui (26) back on the second ball of his over with Wadkar grabbing the catch. The next delivery nipped in and rattled new man T Vijay’s furniture. Two deliveries later, Lalith Mohan (0) poked his bat to a widish delivery to give Thakare his third wicket.
Captain Akshay Wadkar was acrobatic in taking the catch of Mohan diving to his right. An over later, Thakare completed the formalities taking the wicket of Andhra’s last man KV Sasikanth. This stunning win will boost Vidarbha’s confidence tremendously given that they were one bowler short from Day One with premier pacer Umesh Yadav getting injured bowling only 6.5 overs. Vidarbha were unable to find success in the morning session with overnight batters Abhishek Reddy (78) and Shaikh Rasheed (74) going strong.
Spinners Akshay Wakhare (2- 71) and Harsh Dubey (4-69) tried all tricks but somehow were unable to break the partnership. There were edges that flew from the bats which at time beat wicket keeper captain Akshay Wadkar as well as short leg fielder Danish Malewar. Finally, the moment for Vidarbha to cheer came in the seventh over after lunch break when Abhishek was trapped in front off Wakhare. The dent was made in Andhra batting and Vidarbha bowlers pounced on the opportunity.
Next to go was Rasheed with Dubey finding his pads in front of the wicket. From 163-1, Andhra were reduced to 189-3. India stumper KS Bharat tried to release the pressure but was caught at point region by Aman Mokhade off Dubey and then Ashwin Hebbar was caught by Malewar at short leg off Wakhare. The writing was on the wall for Andhra and Vidarbha took the new ball and Thakare made full use of it, completing the formalities wiping out the remaining wickets in no time.
Vidarbha will now travel to Pondicherry on Tuesday for their second match of Group B starting October 18.
