Skipper Ranjit Paradkar (62, 155b, 8x4) and Shreekant Wagh (83, 87b, 10x4, 3x6) put together a timely 81-run stand for the seventh wicket and took Vidarbha past Tamil Nadu’s first innings total of 443 in a Ranji Trophy Group ‘B’ match here on Tuesday.
The left-hander Wagh joined Paradkar at the fall of Gaurav Updahyay’s wicket at 354 and scattered the field with a counter-attack and eased the nerves of the home team which eventually gained three points to take its tally to 11 from four games. Tamil Nadu has 10 points from five. Uttar Pradesh is on top of the group with 17 points, followed by Odisha (16), Baroda (13) and Delhi (11).
Vidarbha crossed Tamil Nadu’s score 10 minutes past 4 o’clock, but the visiting team was forced to play for another fifty minutes in order to make up for its slow over-rate on the third and fourth days. It was during this time that B. Aparajith and R. Prasanna sent down close to 20 overs in half-an-hour and allowed debutant Sumit Ruikar to help himself to a half-century.
Cutting loose
Tamil Nadu was in with a chance to gain first innings points until the out of form Paradkar (six runs from the three previous matches) and Wagh cut loose in the post tea session.
The overnight pair in Faiz Fazal and Shalabh Shrivastava struck six fours in the first three overs of L. Balaji and Yomahesh, but newcomer Vijay Shankar forced an edge from Shrivastava and Gaurav Upahdyay, but more importantly Balaji bowled Faiz and Hemang Badani to bring Tamil Nadu back into the game.
Wagh helped Vidarbha cross the 400-run mark with a pulled six off Yomahesh. He then off drove left-arm spinner Aushik Srinivas for a six and punched him off the backfoot for a four to bring up his 50 in style.
The scores:
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: 443 for eight decl.
Vidarbha — 1st innings: F. Fazal b Balaji 143, S.S. Das (run out) 62, U. Patel c Arun Karthik b Auskik 12, S. Shrivastava c Dinesh Karthik b Vijay Shankar 28, H. Badani b Balaji 0, R. Paradkar b Auskik 62, G. Upadhyaya c Prasanna b Vijay Shankar 30, S. Wagh b Aparajith 83, S. Ruikar (not out) 67, A. Junghade (not out) 28; Extras (b-29, lb-16, nb-1, w-5): 51; Total (for eight wkts. in 181 overs): 566.
Fall of wickets: 1-151, 2-182, 3-257, 4-258, 5-282, 6-354, 7-435, 8-481.
Tamil Nadu bowling: Balaji 37-11-99-2, Yomahesh 34-5-102-0, Vijay Shankar 27-2-52-2, Prasanna 15-1-63-0, M. Ashwin 19-1-70-0, Aushik 32-15-62-2, Aparajith 15-3-50-1, Arun Karthik 1-0-19-1, Abhinav 1-0-4-0.
