Fifties from Akshay Wadkar and Yash Rathod in the face of an impending crisis not only held Vidarbha through the third day but also put it in the driver’s seat in the first Ranji Trophy semifinal against Madhya Pradesh at the VCA Stadium (Civil Lines) in Nagpur on Monday.
Their 158-run sixth-wicket alliance started when Vidarbha was staring down the barrel, five down at 161, merely 59 runs ahead in the second innings. The pair’s session-and-a-half-long defiance saw Vidarbha safely through at 343 for six by close of play, 261 runs ahead.
The duo started ticking ahead in singles, playing with soft hands against spinners Kumar Kartikeya and Saransh Jain. While Rathod gave only a glimpse of the trademark left-hander grace in his first essay, he stamped it with pleasure in the second - the back-to-back flicks off Kulwant Khejroliya being a case in point.
Captain Wadkar displayed great restraint, getting to fifty off 92 deliveries, but finally gave in at the stroke of Stumps, indulging in a slash and holing out at second slip for 77. Rathod, however, walked back unbeaten on 97, ensuring Vidarbha had its tail up after the moving day.
Earlier in the morning, Dhruv Shorey resumed in the same vein he had closed the second day, leaning in for full-bladed drives through covers and down the ground. The loss of Akshay Wakhare did not pinch as Shorey and Aman Mokhade wiped off the 69-run deficit inside 20 overs.
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Mokhade was undaunted by the elaborate ploy that proved terminal in the first innings, taking on the bouncers against Avesh Khan and Khejroliya even with traps set at deep fine-leg and deep square-leg. Coming into the contest on the high of a hundred in the Col. C.K. Nayudu Trophy, Mokhade brought up his maiden First-Class fifty in 82 deliveries.
But Kartikeya accounted for both batters on either side of the lunch break. The left-arm off-spinner had Shorey caught behind down leg-side before getting Mokhade leg-before on the first delivery post Lunch.
Karun Nair flirted with danger, slashing outside off throughout his 43-ball stint. He pocketed five boundaries, two of them through the slip cordon, before an in-seaming delivery from Khejroliya crashed into his stumps. Though Nair’s fall seemed like the beginning of the end, Madhya Pradesh had little inkling that Wadkar and Rathod were just getting started.
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