Vidarbha pacer Aditya Thakare picked up his sixth five-wicket haul in first-class cricket, while left-handed batter Yash Rathod struck a half-century in the second innings as last year’s runners-up Vidarbha took a commanding 297-run lead against Tamil Nadu in their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal here on Monday. Thakare, whose four-wicket burst had TN hanging on the ropes at 159/6 after the second day’s play on Sunday, broke the resistance of tail-ender Sonu Yadav (32) as Sai Kishore’a side was dismissed for 225 in 64.3 overs, giving Vidarbha a handsome 128-run first-innings lead.
Vidarbha, who have not lost a single match this season, then overcame an unimpressive start to reach 169/5 at close on day 3, an overall lead of 297, with Rathod batting confidently on 55 (119 balls) in the company of Harsh Dubey (29 not out off 55 balls).
Tamil Nadu, who were in dire straits at 159/6 on Sunday, lost their skipper Sai Kishore (7), who could add just one run to his overnight score.
The team seemed to be heading for a sub-200 score but tail-ender Sonu Yadav played a responsible knock to take his team to a respectable total before he was the last wicket to fall.
Vidarbha, who had won six and drawn a game to top their group, were off to an uninspiring start losing their first three wickets for 61 runs before India player Karun Nair struck 29 and then Rathod struck an unbeaten half-century, his sixth in first-class cricket, to guide his team to safety.
His 55-run sixth-wicket partnership with Dubey was enough to give Vidarbha a lot of confidence going into day 4 on Tuesday.
With Tamil Nadu’s top order boasting of some big names, including Narayan Jagadeesan, Sai Sudharsan and Vijay Shankar, Vidarbha might look to add another 100 runs to be in the safe zone.
Vidarbha were off to a confident start but lost openers Atharva Taide (19), Dhruv Shorey (20) and Danish Malewar (0) in quick succession with left-arm spinner Sai Kishore accounting for the last two.
First innings centurion Nair, who has been in sublime form this season, amassing tons of runs in Ranji Trophy and Vijay Hazare, struggled for runs in the second essay before he was dismissed for 29 off 78 deliveries.
At 99/4, things could have gone downhill for Vidarbha but Rathod and Dubey played responsibly to help the team inch closer to the psychological 300-run lead.
Gujarat vs Saurashtra
Jaymeet Patel completed a well-deserved hundred in the morning but it was keeper-batter Urvil Patel, who knocked the stuffing out of hosts Saurashtra with a superb 140, as Gujarat inched closer to the last-four stage on third day of their Ranji Trophy quarter-final here.
Having dismissed Saurashtra for 216, Gujarat finished their first essay on a mammoth 511, a lead of 295, which has almost sealed the deal for Chintan Gaja’s men.
While Manan Hingrajia’s stodgy 83 off 219 balls laid the foundation, left-handed Jaymeet (103 off 171 balls) completed his ton and then Urvil (140 off 197 balls) took a seasoned seamer like Jaydev Unadkat (1/107 in 31 overs) to the task.
It is a rarity to find Unadkat being hit for 14 boundaries and two sixes in a single innings. Urvil in fact hit half a dozen of his 17 boundaries off the Saurashtra skipper, apart from also punishing the experienced Dharmendra Jadeja (5/120 in 37.1 overs) by clobbering him for a couple of sixes.
In all, Urvil hit four sixes. Trying to hit a fifth one off Dharmendra, he was stumped.
At stumps, Saurashtra reached 33 for no loss, bringing the deficit down to 262, but setting a fourth-innings target worth defending would be an incredibly difficult job for them.
Unless Saurashtra score at least 450 runs on the fourth day and set a target in range of 220 for the visitors, there is no chance of a fightback for them.
Scoring runs at a brisk pace on a track that will get considerably slower with the passage of play is going to be difficult, and it will all depend on how Chirag Jani, Harvik Desai start the fourth day’s play.
During the last hour on day three, they were cautious and scored only 33 in 16 overs.
Jammu and Kashmir vs Kerala
Skipper Paras Dogra delivered when it mattered the most, lifting Jammu & Kashmir to 180 for three for a substantial overall lead after Kerala staged a comeback of their own on a gripping third day of their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal here on Monday.
Dogra was batting on 73 at stumps, and wicketkeeper Kanhaiya Wadhawan was giving him captain company on 42, as J&K stretched their lead to 179 runs with seven wickets still in hand.
With Kerala starting the day on overnight 200 for nine and still 80 runs behind, J&K entered the field hoping that it would wrap up their opponents’ first innings in a jiffy.
However, Salman Nizar had other ideas as the middle-order worked his way to a brilliant 112 off 172 balls after starting the day on 49, helping Kerala to take a one-run lead before their first innings came to an end at 281.
Nizar remained not out, as Basil Thampi chipped in with 15 before becoming seamer Auqib Nabi’s (6/53) sixth victim of the innings to signal the end of Kerala innings.
While Nabi was without a doubt J&K’s best bowler, Yudhvir Singh and Sahil Lotra picked up two wickets each.
Pacer MD Nidheesh (2/45), who also ended with six wickets in the first innings besides scoring a handy 30, then sent back the two J&K openers — Shubham Khajuria (2) and Yawer Hassan (16) — cheaply as Kerala nosed ahead of their opponents. Nedumankuzhy Basil (1/43), Nidheesh’s new ball partner, compounded J&K’s struggles in their second innings by removing Vivrant Sharma after the batter had settled down nicely with a 37 off 70 balls.
Kerala had the edge at that point in the game, but the duo of Dogra and Wadhawan dashed their hopes of making further inroads with an unbroken partnership of 102 runs for the fourth wicket.
While Dogra struck seven fours and a six during his stay in the middle, Wadhawan found the fence three times in his 80-ball knock. Dogra took 148 balls to score his runs.
Brief scores:
Vidarbha: 353 & 169 for 5 in 62 overs (Karun Nair 29, Yash Rathod 55 not out, Harsh Dubey 29 not out; Sai Kishore 2/47) vs Tamil Nadu: 225 all out in 64.3 overs (C Andre Siddharth 65; Pradosh Ranjan Paul 48, Sonu Yadav 32; Aditya Thakare 5/34, Yash Thakur 2/78). Vidarbha lead by 297 runs.
Saurashtra 216 and 2nd Innings 33/0 in 16 overs. Gujarat 1st Innings 511 in 159.1 overs (Jaymeet Patel 103, Urvil Patel 140. D Jadeja 5/120, J Unadkat 1/107).
Jammu and Kashmir: 280 and 180/3 in 57 overs (Paras Dogra batting 73, Kanhaiya Wadhawan batting 42; MD Nidheesh 2/45) Kerala 1st innings: 281 all out in 85 overs (Salman Nizar 112, Jalaj Saxena 67; Auqib Nabi 6/53).
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Topics mentioned in this article
