Ranji Trophy  

 

 

VIDARBHA are in a very peculiar situation. Before the white-ball competition break, the defending champions were cruising and were sitting pretty at the top of Elite Group A. Post break, they see themselves slip at the third spot. It was just one bad game, their first defeat after 15 matches, against Andhra that pushed Vidarbha to the wall. Come Thursday, Vidarbha will take on Uttar Pradesh in a must-win last league game at VCA’s Jamtha Stadium. The Harsh Dubey-led side will have to beat Uttar Pradesh, who are already out of knock-out contention, at any cost to move up to at least second spot and make it to last eight. A big win over UP will take Vidarbha’s points tally to 31. But their chances of making knock-outs will depend on the results of the game between toppers Andhra vs Nagaland and second-placed Jharkhand vs Odisha. If Vidarbha, Andhra and Jharkhand all three win their games then the team from South will go through while it will boil down to Run Quotient between the Syed Mushtaq Ali title winners and the hosts.

 

 

While Andhra and Jharkhand have relative easy opponents, Vidarbha will have a slight edge over Uttar Pradesh, playing at home. Vidarbha will have to take field with determination and will have to produce champions stuff. Not for nothing they are three-time Ranji and Irani champions and the players have the wherewithal to eke out an outright win, whoever the opponent be. With opener Aman Mokhade (649 runs) and last season’s highest runs scorer Yash Rathod (645 runs) securing fifth and sixth spots in runs scorers list, Vidarbha will be no pushovers against Uttar Pradesh. Apart from the two talented batters, Vidarbha batting boasts of fit-again Danish Malewar, professional Ravikumar Samarth, wicketkeeper-batter Rohit Binkar, captain Harsh Dubey, Yash Kadam to name a few. It is time that Malewar, who was in a tremendous form last season before getting injured, will have to pull up his socks and help Vidarbha score big. The bowling unit will be bolstered by the return of pacer Yash Thakur who missed the last game due to a niggle.

 

He will have Darshan Nalkande in his company apart from Nachiket Bhute. The spin department will have skipper Dubey with Parth Rekhade and Ganesh Bhosle completing the line-up. The Uttar Pradesh side will look to ending their campaign on a positive note after a not-so-good season with just one win under their belt. The team, led by Aryan Juyal, will take confidence in return of Dhruv Jurel who has the ability to take the opponents to cleaners.

 

The top order will have Abhshek Goswami who had hit 85 in their loss to Jharkhand and Madhav Kaushik. Priyam Garg, the middle-order bat, will look to getting some runs under his belt before IPL. Pacer Shivam Mavi will be in-charge of the bowling department with Siddarth Yadav, Kartik Yadav and Shivam Sharma in his company. The next four days will determine whether Vidarbha stay in the tournament or make a premature exit. The defending champions know how to tide over this peculiar situation.