AFTER the bowlers had done all the hard work on third day, Vidarbha batsmen, led by opener R Sanjay, complemented well as the team recorded a convincing seven-wicket win over Services in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A opener at VCA’s Civil Lines ground on Monday. This became the 14th instance when Vidarbha won the match after conceding first innings lead in a First-Class match. Starting the fourth and final day at 45-0, Vidarbha reached the target of 178 runs losing three wickets. They showed no hurry, took their sweet own time and played the ball on merit. Twenty-six minutes into the second session, Vidarbha debutant Shubham Dubey, acquired by Rajasthan Royals for a whopping Rs 5.80 crore this IPL auction, followed his second six of the innings with a swept single to signal the win.

 

The hosts collected six points from the first game and will now move to Ahmedabad to play Manipur in their second match beginning January 12. Vidarbha started with Faiz Fazal (26; 47b, 3x4) and Sanjay (84*; 180b, 9x4). Sanjay got his second life at 33 when he was dropped by Vineet Dhankhar at gully on the bowling of Nitin Yadav, once again.

In the very next over, Faiz was cleaned up by seamer Varun Choudhary, who had snared six in the first innings. The two had taken the score to 60 by that time.

 

New man Dhruv Shorey (9; 20b, 1x4) could not better his first innings score and again lost his stumps in an identical way. This time he misjudged the line of Poonam Poonia and was bowled trying to leave the ball. With 74-2 and more than hundred still required, Services sensed a chance but Karun Nair (36; 72b, 5x4) and Sanjay denied them stitching an important 75-run partnership for the third wicket. Just at the stroke of lunch, Nair, in his attempt to go for a six, mistimed the shot and skier was neatly taken by Anshul Gupta at mid-off on the bowling of offie Pulkit Narang. Dubey (18*; 21b, 2x6) and Sanjay walked in after lunch and knocked off the required 29 runs with left-handed Dubey carting Narang and left-arm spinner Arjun Sharma for a straight six each.