After a session of high voltage batting, which defied the greenish tinge on the wicket, Vidarbha spinners struck to bowl out Rest of India (RoI) for 330 on the opening day of the Z.R. Irani Cup cricket tournament at the VCA stadium here on Tuesday.
It all began ominously for Vidarbha in the morning as the mainstay of its batting, Wasim Jaffer, failed a fitness test and was ruled out.
Blitz
After losing the toss, Mayank Agarwal’s blitz in the opening session pulverised the Ranji champion but, led by its spinners, Vidarbha fought back by taking nine wickets post lunch.
Rest slipped from an imperious 171 for one to 258 for seven before Hanuma Vihari (114) and the tailenders took the total beyond 300.
The Vidarbha spinners weren’t spectacular but were persistent enough to induce mistakes from the batsmen.
Akshay Wakhare (three for 62) was the pick of the lot and he found good support from Aditya Sarwate (three for 99).
Vihari, who played an innings of controlled aggression, had a slice of luck on 29 when his tentative prod off Sarwate fell short of Fazal who claimed the catch. The batsman was ruled not out after it was referred.
However, Sarwate had his revenge when he got one to bounce and turn and had the settled batsmen caught in the slips by Fazal.
Earlier, Mayank Agarwal (95) was on song as his authoritative strokeplay made the Vidarbha bowling look innocuous. Rajneesh Gurbani’s wayward first over set the trend as RoI’s opening pair of Mayank and Anmolpreet Singh feasted on some loose offerings to put on 46 runs for the first wicket in quick time.
However, Rajneesh got one to nip back and cleaned up Anmolpreet for 16.
Vihari was circumspect at the start but gradually found the range of his strokes against the spinners and along with Mayank put the attack to the sword.
Mayank, who looked set for a century, checked a drive and was caught at mid-off by Gurbani off Thakur.
The rot sets in
Mayank’s dismissal started the rot. Captain Rahane (13) struggled and his misery ended when he pushed tentatively at Sarwate and Sanjay at short gully juggled with the ball before cupping the catch.
Shreyas Iyer looked in ominous touch and played the big shots off the spinners but was trapped in front when he played the wrong line to Karnewar.
Ishan Kishan and K.Gowtham went into aggressive mode too early in their innings and perished to catches in the deep.
But in the end Rahul Chahar (22) and Ankit Rajpoot (25) yielded the long handle to good effect and gave respectability to the total.
The scores:
Rest of India — 1st innings: Mayank Agarwal c Gurbani b Thakur 95, Anmolpreet Singh b Gurbani 15, Hanuma Vihari c Fazal b Sarwate 114, A. Rahane c Sanjay bt Sarwate 13, Shreyas Iyer lbw b Karnewar 19, Ishan Kishan c Gurbani b Wakhare 2, K. Gowtham c Gurbani b Wakhare 7, D.A. Jadeja b Sarwate 6, Rahul Chahar b Gurbani 22, A. Rajpoot b Wakhare 25, Tanveer Haq (not out) 0; Extras (b-2, 1b-7, nb-2, w-1): 12. Total (in 89.4 overs): 330.
Fall of wickets: 1-46, 2-171, 3-186, 4-231, 5-234, 6-246, 7-258, 8-305, 9-305.
Vidarbha bowling: Gurbani 15-2-58-2, Thakur 17-3-52-1, Sarwate 28-5-99-3, Karnewar 15-3-50-1, Wakhare 14.4-0-62-3.
