Vidarbha v Rajasthan (Vijay Merchant, Central Zone)

O P Sharma, CricInfo
16-18 December 1998

Vidarbha's Alind Naidu scored a patient 60 to help his team reach a respectable 174 for 6 at close of play today. Vidarbha's captain Ritesh Kadu won the toss and had no hesitation in electing to bat. The decision seemed to backfire as both Vidharbha's openers were back in pavilion with a mere 28 runs on the board. At this stage, Alind Naidu (60) and Ritesh Kadu (37) went about repairing the damage by adding 73 runs for the third wicket. Naidu completed his 50 in 172 minutes off 136 balls with 2 fours. Rajasthan's spinners bowled a tight line to prevent Vidarbha's batsmen from scoring freely.

Day 2 Report

Vidarbha are in a strong position at the end of play today. They took a first-innings lead of 127 runs, and after skittling out Rajasthan for 88, increased their overall lead to 155 runs with nine wickets in hand.

Vidarbha's first innings ended on 215 runs, just before lunch, Rajasthan captain Ankush Singh and Naresh Ghelot took 4 and 3 wickets respectively. In reply Rajasthan lost wickets regularly due to some very good bowling from Vidarbha's bowlers, and at one stage squandered 6 wickets for just 49 runs. Afroz Khan and Shamsher Singh added 35 crucial runs to avert the follow-on, which looked like a real possibility. Rajasthan's first innings folded an hour before the scheduled close. In the remaining time, Vidarbha lost Alind Naidu's wicket, brilliantly caught in the covers off Afroz Khan.

Tommorow Vidarbha's batsmen will look for some quick runs in the first session and then put pressure on the opposition to force a result. Vidarbha need an outright victory to gain entry to the knock-out phase of the competition.

Day 3 Report

In a dramatic turnaround, Rajasthan's batsmen came up with a superb backs-to-the-wall batting display, to win the match outright by four wickets with 8.3 mantadatory overs to go. It was heart-break time for Vidarbha who seemingly had the match sewn up at the end of the second day. With this win Rajasthan earn the full 8 points. They have 11 points from 3 League matches. Rajasthan's hope to qualify for the knock-outs now depends on the outcome of the Uttar Pradesh-Madhya Pradesh match. If Madhya Pradesh lose this match outright then Rajasthan are through.

Resuming on their overnight score of 28 for 1, Vidarbha scored 115 for 5 wickets and declared their innings to give Rajasthan a target of 243 runs off 77 overs. With the help of some magnificent batting by Ankush Singh (50), Abhinav Sharma (60), and Afroz Khan (49), Rajasthan achieved this in the 69th over of the innings. Ankush Singh and Abhinav added 89 runs for the 2nd wicket that laid the foundation for the victory. Afroz Khan and Nardeep Singh added 61 runs for the 6th wicket. Ankush's 50 come in 69 minutes off 63 balls while Abhinav completed his 50 in 106 minutes off 69 balls. For Vidarbha, Srikant Joshi claimed 3 wickets in a losing cause.