VIDARBHA bowlers excelled as a unit to bowl out defending champions Jammu and Kashmir for a below par score in their first innings of the Elite Group A Ranji Trophy game at the S h e r - i - K a s h m i r Stadium, Srinagar on Sunday. After winning flip of the coin, Vidarbha skipper Akshay Wadkar invited the hosts to take first strike. At the end of 13 overs and close to an hour’s play, it looked that the decision to bowl first had backfired. J&K openers Qamran Iqbal (9; 37b, 1x4) and Yawer Hassan (21; 45b, 4x4) saw off the new ball respecting the conditions reaching 31 without being separated. But Vidarbha’s India seamer Yash Thakur (2-63), who was drafted into the side after missing the first Ranji game against Pondicherry while on India A duty, dealt the first blow. Coming as first change bowler, Thakur had Iqbal caught at the wicket by Wadkar, who went on to effect four more dismissals to complete a five-wicket haul behind the wicket. One brought two as Rajneesh Gurbani (2- 41), playing his first game for Vidarbha after a long time, dismissed the other opener Hassan, also caught by the skipper. The hosts were 31-2 in no time. Number three Kawalpreet Singh (96; 176b, 15x4) and captain Paras Dogra (36; 67b, 4x4, 1x6) then forged a good third wicket partnership that yielded exactly a Nelson (111 runs).

 

Third of the four seamers employed by Vidarbha, Nachiket Bhute (3-41), gave the team much needed breakthrough by getting rid of Dogra. Wadkar had a hand in all the first three dismissals as J&K scorecard read 142-3. One run later, popular IPL player Abdul Samad, known for big hitting, was cleaned up by another IPL player and fourth Vidarbha seamer Praful Hinge (1-55) for a six-ball one. Rydham Sharma (31; 45b, 5x4) played some positive cricket along with Singh before edging one to Wadkar off Thakur. Singh and Lone Nasir (21, 53b, 2x4) took the score past the 200- run mark. When the former was just a stroke away from what would have been a deserving hundred on debut, Hinge ran him out for 96. Vidarbha’s another India player, left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey (1-39) accounted for Nasir having him stumped by Wadkar. Abid Mushtaq (25; 52b, 1x4, 1x6) offered some resistance but Gurbani and Bhute polished off the tail with the latter taking last two wickets in his 17th and team’s 83rd over. J&K’s duo of Singh and Sharma, and Vidarbha’s all-rounder Mandar Mahale, who bowled tight nine overs of his off-break giving just 16 runs, made their First-Class debuts.