Responsibility brings best out of those who possess willpower to fight. They soak the pressure of added burden which helps them perform better. Same is the case with Vidarbha captain Harsh Dubey. The burden of captaincy brought out a superlative performance from the left-arm spinner as he ran through Uttar Pradesh’s innings with a fifer in Vidarbha’s crucial Ranji Trophy match here at VCA’s Jamtha Stadium on Thursday. With regular skipper Akshay Wadkar injured, the reigns of the team was handed over to Dubey who did not disappoint the team management. After escorting Vidarbha to their maiden Vijay Hazare title, Dubey is leading the side to perfection in the red-ball format too. In a must-win game against Uttar Pradesh Dubey used his skills and clever thinking to take six first innings wickets which restricted the visitors at 237 in 68.5 overs.

 

 

At stumps, Vidarbha were 33 without loss, still trailing by 204 runs. Openers Aman Mokhade (19) and Satyam Bhoyar (13) were at the crease. Going into the last league match, Vidarbha missed the services of Dhruv Shorey, Yash Rathod and regular captain Akshay Wadkar. But Dubey made it sure it does not affect his performance. He bowled a perfect line and spun the ball enough to get edges from the bat of UP batters. Out of his six wickets, four were caught in slips and one by wicketkeeper Rohit Binkar. If that was not enough, Dubey used his bowlers cleverly which helped them take crucial wickets. Dubey did the bulk of damage on Uttar Pradesh batting taking wickets at regular intervals. The first session belonged to the hosts who pushed UP to 80 for 4 at lunch.

 

During the morning session, Dubey snared three wickets after pacer Nachiket Bhute had given then an early breakthrough when he disturbed the timber of UP opener Madhav Kaushik (4) in the 8th over. Dubey came in as a first change bowler in the 11th over. He would have made an immediate impact but Aman Mokhade, who was handed the vice-captaincy for the match, spilled a catch at second slip of opener Abhishek Goswami. But he did not trouble much as Dubey got him in his second over disturbing his furniture with a delivery which spun enough to bang into the stumps. A couple of overs later, the Vidarbha captain forced rival skipper Aryan Juyal (12) to edge one to substitute Atharva Taide at second slip. Aditya Sharma then became Dubey third prey a few overs later with wicketkeeper Rohit Binkar taking a sharp catch. Vidarbha tasted more success post lunch break getting two quick wickets in space of six overs. Left-handed UP batter Siddharth Yadav was the first to go who was beautifully caught by Binkar off Hinge. Yadav and Jurel had added 43 runs for the 5th wicket before the former departed. Binkar then showed his agility in stumping Shivam Sharma off Parth Rekhade as Uttar Pradesh slumped to 109 for six. India international Jurel (96) and Shivam Mavi (47) did frustrate Vidarbha bowlers with a 92 runs seventh wicket partnership, but Dubey brought Yash Kadam into the attack.

 

The part-time spinner responded well breaking the partnership with the wicket of Mavi who went for a huge heave only to hand an easy catch to Parth Rekhade at long on. Jurel played sensibly and waited for loose deliveries and increased the pace of the game as UP took tea at 201-7. Vidarbha regrouped after the break and Dubey cleaned up the tail taking all the three wickets. With Jurel inching towards his century and strong on off-side, Dubey bowled smartly with some negative line which forced Jurel to play a reverse shot. The batter fell prey to Dubey’s trick as he handed over an easy catch to Kadam at short third man. In the same over, the Vidarbha captain completed his 9th five-wicket haul taking the wicket of debutant Karan Chaudhary and then ended UP innings with Kartik Tyagi’s wicket, caught at slips by Kadam. The responsibility is making Dubey a clever cricketer.