Tamil Nadu and Vidarbha ended their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal with contrasting takeaways at the SMS Stadium here on Friday, the former advancing to the last four on the basis of its first innings lead and the latter drawing satisfaction from having put up a fight and salvaging a draw.
Resuming at 193 for six, Tamil Nadu added 73 runs on Friday morning to leave Vidarbha with an improbable target of 411 from 62 overs. Vidarbha was 142 for eight when the teams decided to call off the game with 13 of the mandatory overs remaining.
Tamil Nadu coach W.V. Raman gave credit to the youngsters in the team.
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“It was a hard fought game, and it was good to see the youngsters take the responsibility and handle the pressure. I was impressed by Vijay Shankar who was trying to establish himself. He played two good knocks. It was good that Indrajith played two crucial knocks too, because he bats with tail-enders,” he said.
“The bowlers showed good discipline too. Over the years, the Tamil Nadu attack had lacked patience. It was different here. The result here should help the team in totality.”
For Vidarbha coach Paras Mhambrey, the match was a learning experience for his team.
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“I am happy the way the team played. We bowled out Tamil Nadu twice. If only the batsmen had applied themselves in the first innings…,” he said.
“We were playing in the knockout after a long time and did our reputation no harm. This was our ninth game without a break, and the bowlers took the workload wonderfully. We created an impact in the tournament, played good cricket on all kinds of pitches. We do need to improve in certain areas but the team showed it belonged here.”
The scores: Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: 403.
Vidarbha — 1st innings: 259.
Tamil Nadu — 2nd innings: Abhinav Mukund lbw b Bandiwar 1, M. Vijay c & b Bandiwar 16, B. Aparajith lbw b Bandiwar 0, Dinesh Karthik c Patel b Jangid 64, Vijay Shankar run out 82, R. Prasanna run out 17, B. Indrajith c Katariya b Dhurv 49, Malolan Rangarajan c Katariya b Thakur 32, Aswin Crist c Patel b Thakur 1, L. Balaji b Dhurv 0, Prasanth Parameswaran (not out) 0, Extras (b-1, lb-1, nb-2) 4; Total (in 98.2 overs) 266.
Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-17, 3-26, 4-115, 5-180, 6-184, 7-260, 8-265, 9-266.
Vidarbha bowling: Ravi Thakur 20.2-6-62-2, Swapnil Bandiwar 14-4-42-3, Faiz Fazal 8-1-21-0, Rakesh Dhurv 35-8-88-2, Ravi Jangid 17-3-40-1, S. Badrinath 4-1-11-0.
Vidarbha — 2nd innings: Faiz Fazal c Abhinav b Prasanth 11, Sachin Katariya c Prasanna b Balaji 4, Ganesh Satish (not out) 59, S. Badrinath c Karthik b Prasanth 0, Shalabh Shrivastava b Aparajith 33, Ravi Jangid lbw b Aparajith 12, Urvesh Patel c sub b Malolan 0, Shrikant Wagh lbw b Aparajith 0, Rakesh Dhurv run out 22, Swapnil Bandiwar (not out) 0, Extras (lb-1) 1; Total (for eight wkts. in 49 overs) 142.
Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-15, 3-15, 4-68, 5-90, 6-95, 7-96, 8-137.
Tamil Nadu bowling: L. Balaji 4-1-21-1, Prasanth Parameswaran 7-2-26-2, Aswin Crist 2-0-20-0, B. Aparajith 19-4-41-3, Malolan Rangarajan 14-3-25-1, Abhinav Mukund 3-1-8-0.