TITLE holders Vidarbha walked into the semi-finals of the Col CK Nayudu Trophy on the basis of first innings lead against Uttar Pradesh at Alembic 2 Cricket Ground in Vadodara on Friday.

Vidarbha will take on Madhya Pradesh in the semi-finals which will be played at the same venue from coming Monday.

After posting a mammoth 523 in the first innings, Vidarbha bowlers shot Uttar Pradesh out for a paltry 156 thus taking a first innings lead of 367. Vidarbha did not enforce follow on and scored 161 runs in the second innings giving Uttar Pradesh a huge target of 537. While chasing, Uttar Pradesh managed to score 231 for six from 47 overs.

Resuming the last day at 109 for four, Vidarbha could manage to add another 52 runs to their total. Overnight batsmen Yash Kadam and wicketkeeper captain Siddesh Wath couldn’t add much to their scores. Kadam, who resumed at a personal score of 4 runs was sent back by Ankit Choudhary at 27 while Wath failed to open his account.

It was Vidarbha skipper who returned back to the pavilion first in the fourth over of the day. Harsh Dubey was the next to depart cheaply when he was trapped in front off Rishabh Bansal for 13. Three deliveries later Nachiket Bhute returned back without troubling the scorers as Kadam watched wickets tumbling from the other end. He finally perished in the 55th over with Vidarbha’s scoreboard reading 156 for 8.

Vidarbha, then, managed another five runs as their innings folded at 161.

Despite a mountain to climb (target 537) Uttar Pradesh started cautiously adding 36 runs for the first wicket.

Pacer Bhute gave Vidarbha the breakthrough when he disturbed opener Aanjaneya Suryavanshi’s furnitures in the ninth over.

Other opener Siddharth Yadav tried to pace up the innings with a boundary and two sixes but Kadam trapped him in front in the 12th over.

Uttar Pradesh’s middle-order bat Sameer Rizvi hit an unbeaten century (103) off just 107 deliveries hitting eight fours and five sixes but Vidarbha continued to pick up wickets from the other end.

Dubey took two second innings wickets in captain Choudhary and Prince Yadav’s dismissals while kadam, Bhute, Mandar Mahalle and Mohit Kale took one each.