VIDARBHA bowlers will have to pull up their socks when they meet Hyderabad in their Elite Group B Vijay Hazare Trophy league match at Sanosara Ground B in Rajkot on Friday. Even after amassing their top score of 382-5 in List A matches, Vidarbha bowlers failed to restrict Bengal and the side went down by three wickets with seven balls to spare in the tournament opener on Wednesday. Put into bat, Vidarbha top-order batters Dhruv Shorey and Aman Mokhade hit hundreds as the Ranji Trophy champions bettered their score of 380-3 made against Maharashtra in Vadodara last season when they reached final of the tournament. But like Bengal bowlers, that included Indian trio of Mohammad Shami, Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep, Vidarbha too could not stop the consistent flow of runs.

 

Vidarbha must take heart from the fact that they scored against a quality attack and that their batters can do it again ... and again. Dhruv has been in terrific form in the 50-overs format. This was his fourth hundred in a row for the side. He hit tons in last season’s quarter-final, semis and the final. Vidarbha batters must play along side him as was done by Mokhade in the last game. Still young but now experienced enough bowlers like vice-captain Yash Thakur and Darshan Nalkande must take more responsibility to lead the bowling attack. Young skipper Harsh Dubey will need to become quick learner and come up with some out of the box thinking. Hyderabad are also coming into the match after losing by 84 runs to Uttar Pradesh. In reply to UP’s 324-5, Hyderabad were all out for 240 in 43 overs with legbreak-googly bowler Zeeshan Ansari 4-31 from his ten overs.

 

Tanmay Agarwal, who hit the lone fifty for them in the opener, and Aelgani Varun Goud will be the batters Hyderabad would look up to score big. They would also hope that their top bowlers Tanay Thyagarajan, Arfaz Ahmed, who made debut in the last game, and Kartikeya Kak are able to contain Vidarbha big hitters. Match starts at 9 am. Hyderabad: Rahul Singh (C), Rahul Buddhi (VC), Abhirath Reddy, Tanmay Agarwal, Aman Rao, Arfaz Ahmed, Kartikeya Kak, Nitesh Reddy, Nitin Sai Yadav, Pragnay Reddy, Prateek Reddy, B Punnaiah, Rakshan Readdi, Tanay Thyagarajan, Aelgani Varun Goud.