Kedar Jadhav’s magnificent strokeplay pulled Maharashtra out of a tricky situation and kept it in the hunt for a place in the last-four on the second day of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match at the Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium here on Tuesday.
Maharashtra rode on Jadhav’s unbeaten half-century to score 172 for six in its second innings at the close of play to wipe out a first innings deficit of 47 runs and take a valuable lead of 125 runs in the evenly-poised contest.
Andhra, resuming at 87 for three, lost its remaining seven wickets for 51 runs as the Maharashtra bowlers maintained an ideal length and got good purchase off the track in the morning session.
Anupam Sanklecha, who had bowled impressively to capture two wickets overnight, led the Maharashtra attack efficiently.
Andhra lost D.B. Prasanth early through a freak run out. Sanklecha produced a beautiful outswingers to take the outside edges of A.G. Pradeep and Ricky Bhui in one over.
Dominic Muthuswami's inswingers consumed D. Naren Reddy and K. Harish within a gap of two deliveries and a hard-working Samad Fallah claimed the remaining two wickets to wrap up the Andhra innings for 138.
Positive approach Maharashtra adopted a positive approach and executed its plan well in its second essay. It shuffled its batting order and looked to score quickly.
Harshad Khadiwale and Rohit Motwani stitched together a 55-run stand following Swapnil Gugale’s departure in the fourth over. Motwani guarded one end, while Khadiwale (47, 71b, 108m, 8x4) played some fine shots as conditions improved for batting.
Andhra bounced back briefly when Motwani was stumped off P. Vijay Kumar and Khadiwale and Ankit Bawne returned to the pavillion in quick succession.
Crucial stand A crucial 79-run stand from 108 balls between Kedar Jadhav (81 batting, 84b, 9x4, 3x6) and Chirag Khurana (23, 87b, 138m, 2x4) shifted the momentum in favour of Maharashtra even as Mohammad Kaif persisted with Vijay, who bowled 14 overs on the trot in his second spell.
Khurana looked solid, while a confident Jadhav, who recently played a 72-ball 172 in a local T20 match in Pune, displayed his brand of fearless batting.
He bludgeoned the Andhra bowlers all over the park in his run-a-ball knock containing three sixes over mid-wicket, long-off and long-on.
“Scoring runs is more important than survival on this wicket. I had seen Virender Sehwag scoring a hundred here (against Haryana) on TV and was inspired by his innings. Sehwag had said that post-lunch and post-tea sessions were the best time to score runs here and I followed that,” said Jadhav.
The scores:
Maharashtra – 1st innings: 91.
Andhra — 1st innings: D.B. Prasanth run out 28, K.S. Bharat lbw b Fallah 11, M.U.B. Sriram b Sanklecha 31, Mohammad Kaif c Motwani b Sanklecha 0, A.G. Pradeep c Motwani b Sanklecha 27, Ricky Bhui c Motwani b Sanklecha 4, Naren Reddy b Dominic 7, D. Siva Kumar b Fallah 14, K. Harish b Dominic 0, C.V. Stephen b Fallah 1, P. Vijay Kumar (not out) 0, Extras (b-5, lb-8, nb-2) 15, Total (in 63.3 overs) 138.
Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-61, 3-61, 4-90, 5-108, 6-109, 7-126, 8-126, 9-132.
Maharashtra bowling: Samad Fallah 26.3-8-45-3, Anupam Sanklecha 18-4-45-4, Shrikant Mundhe 6-0-17-0, Dominic Muthuswami 12-5-16-2, Rahul Tripathi 1-0-2-0.
Maharashtra — 2nd innings: Swapnil Gugale b Siva Kumar 0, Harshad Khadiwale c Kaif b Stephen 47, Rohit Motwani st Bharat b Vijay Kumar 7, Chirag Khurana lbw b Stephen 23, Ankit Bawne c Bharat b Siva Kumar 1, Kedar Jadhav (batting) 81, Rahul Tripathi (retd. hurt) 0, Shrikant Mundhe c Pradeep b Siva Kumar 6, Anupam Sanklecha (batting) 0, Extras (lb-4, nb-3) 7, Total (for six wkts. in 58 overs) 172.
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-56, 3-58, 4-66, 5-145, 6-169.
Andhra bowling: P. Vijay Kumar 22-9-46-1, D. Siva Kumar 16-4-54-3, C.V. Stephen 13-4-31-2, K. Harish 7-0-37-0.
