DOUBLE Ranji Trophy and Irani Cup champions Vidarbha, who have been performing below par in the limited overs versions of domestic cricket in Elite Group, were just too good for Plate Group teams. With five wins from five matches, Vidarbha, who were relegated to Plate Group for not winning any matches in the previous edition, showed their supremacy under new leader Akshay Wadkar. Vidarbha recorded a huge 130 runs win over Sikkim as they qualified for the knock-outs of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Twenty20 cricket tournament on Tuesday. In the pre-quarterfinals, Vidarbha will lock horns with Maharashtra at Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi on November 16. Maharashtra ended behind Tamil Nadu in Group A. Both the teams completed the league assignment accumulating 16 points each with Maharashtra having a better net run rate but as they had lost to TN (on headon count) during league phase, they were pushed to second spot.

 

Big-hitter Jitesh Sharma was the star once again as his 20-ball unbeaten 54 that included six maximums and two fours, guided Vidarbha to another big score of 205-5 in 20 overs at the ACA Stadium, Mangalagiri, Vijayawada. Spinner Akshay Karnewar, who wrote world record a day before with four maidens in Twenty20 format, was on the coin yet again. Twenty of his 24 deliveries were dot balls. He conceded just five runs and picked four wickets incuding a two-over hat-trick to restrict Sikkim to 75-8 as Vidarbha completed a clean sweep. Electing to bat, Vidarbha openers Sanjay Ramaswamy (18; 14b, 3x4) and Atharva Taide (35; 22b, 4x4, 1x6) put on 29 runs in 3.2 overs. Later Wadkar (40; 32b, 4x4) and Shubham Dubey (24; 19b, 2x4, 1x6) maintained the run rate. But the impetus was provided by a rampant Sharma and Apoorv Wankhade (29; 14b, 3x4, 2x6) as they hammered 68 runs from 4.2 overs helping the team cross 200-mark. Chasing a mountain of runs, Karthik CA (15) and Liyan Khan (30) gave the team a slow but steady start. Karnewar did the trick again removing two in last two balls of 8th over. In his next over, he picked wicket on first ball to complete his hat-trick and then took one more on third ball to derail Sikkim chase. Vidarbha would have been more happy had they bundled out the minnows who played out all the twenty overs saving two wickets. After a week’s break, onus will be on TeamVidarbha to deliver collectively as they face a strong Maharashtra in one of the three PQFs.