VIDARBHA pacers made up for their poor first innings show by wreaking havoc in the second innings to shoot out Assam for a meagre score in their Ranji Trophy match Assam at Lahli in Haryana on Saturday. The seamers, led by Lalit Yadav (11-5-22-5), who returned with his fifth First-Class five-wicket haul, Rajneesh Gurbani (11.4-2-33-4) and Aditya Thakare (10-0-36-1) accounted for all ten Assam wickets dismissing the side for 110 in just 37.4 overs as 16 wickets fell on Day Three on the important Group G clash. That left Vidarbha needing 156 runs for their only win in the league stage that might propel them to the knock-outs. But young Assam seamer Hridip Deka, playing just his second FC match, snared four top order wickets to keep the match interesting.

 

 

Apoorv Wankhade (6*) and Aditya Sarvate (5*) were at the crease when the umps called it a day. First session of the day belonged to Yadav. The 26-year-old pacer had bowled his heart out even in the first innings but got only one wicket to show. He was clinical on Saturday as he accounted for five top-order wickets in a row after Gurbani and Thakare had scalped one each to sent back the two openers. He first removed hard-hitter Riyan Parag for five. Later picked two in one overs getting rid of Gokul Sharma (6) and Denish Das (0). In his next spell, Yadav got the better of first innings’ centurion Sarupam Purkayastha and skipper-stumper Kunal Saikia to complete his fiver. Gurbani returned to clean the tail. Vidarbha’s in-form skipper Faiz Fazal (41) and R Sanjay (6) started slowly before the latter got out at 19. Faiz and Atharva Taide (25) then took the score to 56 when the former became first of the four victims of right-arm pacer Deka. Taide and Ganesh Satish (29) took the team past the hundred-mark adding 52 runs.

 

Deka struck twice to send Taide and Akshay Wadkar (1) back in the same over. With two more overs remaining in the day, Deka reeled the big fish in Ganesh. With half the side cooling heels, Vidarbha heart beats won’t slow down even after a win as they will be as eager to know result of the other match in the group between Maharashtra (462, 84-4) and Uttar Pradesh (317). At the end of third day, Maharashtra were leading by 229 runs. A draw won’t help either team and if they go for a result (do-or-die), a dead match (in normal circumstances) would come to life and might produce a result that will stall Vidarbha’s progress.