Vidarbha leave Rest of India with mountain to climb

Vidarbha leave Rest of India with mountain to climb

Rajneesh Gurbani picked up four wickets to reduce Rest of India to 236 for 6 in 77 overs on day four. © VCA

Rajneesh Gurbani plotted a swift end to Rest of India’s first essay, and he picked up four wickets to make his intentions known, but Hanuma Vihari and Jayant Yadav kept Vidarbha at bay on the fourth day of their Irani Cup clash at the VCA stadium in Jamtha on Saturday (March 17).

While the unbeaten 138-alliance had all the makings of a defiance worth speaking of, the day still very much belonged to Vidarbha. Rest of India’s score of 236 for 6 in 77 overs at stumps didn’t hold a candle to Vidarbha’s daunting 800 for 7 declared in 226.3 overs. 

Vidarbha’s innings included one double centurion in Wasim Jaffer, a 120 from Ganesh Satish, and the latest was a swashbuckling 157 not out from Apoorv Wankhede. 

Once the batsmen set the tempo and pretty much had the game by the horns, the bowlers went in for the kill. They head-butted the tepid opponents with their pace, reducing them to 98 for 6 in 28 overs.

Rest of India could well have rolled out the white flag, but Vihari and Jayant kept Karun Nair, the Rest of India skipper, and his men from losing all semblance of hope. Vihari, who has had a great domestic season with a string of notable scores, let Vidarbha’s bowlers come at him and soaked in the pressure with a typical workmanlike knock of 81 not out from 171 balls with 10 boundaries. 

Jayant Yadav, who has a double-century to his name in first-class cricket, showed once again that he’s no slouch when it comes to batting, accumulating 62 unconquered runs batting at No. 8.

Rest of India are far from out of trouble, but should they show this sort of resistance on the final day, even if only in the second innings, they should push the contest towards a draw. 

A stalemate would be quite the shame, given just how ruthless Vidarbha have been with the bat, but had they declared earlier, they may have had more of a shot at coming away with a win. 

When Vidarbha started the fourth day on 702 for 5 in 208 overs, the guess was they would bat on till Wankhede, overnight 99, brought up his century. Wankhede didn’t let the break in rhythm affect him as he brought up his second first-class ton, but it was befuddling that he batted on for so long, though his knock was a fiery one, comprising 16 fours and six sixes.

As expected, the bowling card of Rest of India’s bowlers was appalling. Jayant went for 202 runs in 48 overs, while Shahbaz Nadeem gave away 160 in 46 and R Ashwin went for 129 in 43.3. 

Clearly, the pitch had little in terms of a hurdle, but Rest of India’s batsmen dug themselves a trench inside the first 30 overs. 

Gurbani, the paceman who decimated Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy semifinals, clearly liked having a go at the boys from Karnataka and he picked up R Samarth for nought and Karun Nair for 21.

Prithvi Shaw offered some resistance at the top with a quick fire half-century from 64 balls but he needed to stick around longer than that to give Rest of India hope. 

Rest of India would have known the soup they were in once Mayank Agarwal, who had probably one of the finest domestic seasons by an Indian batsman, was back in the hut after scoring 11.

Agarwal was Yadav’s only scalp and Akshay Thakare picked off Shaw, the rest was Gurbani’s doing.   

Vihari and Jayant kept Vidarbha from picking at the wounds any further, but Rest of India found out first-hand why and how Faiz Fazal’s men came away with the Ranji Trophy title this season.