Vidarbha, like their senior team who are in the driver’s seat against Andhra in their Ranji Trophy game, made merry against Hyderabad to run up 377 for seven by stumps on the first day of their four-day Under-23 Col CK Nayudu Trophy Elite match at the NFC ground in Hyderabad on Friday.
No.6 bat Varun Raj Singh Bisht hammered a century (146) and shared a 146-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Jagjot to put Vidarbha back in the saddle after some hiccups.
Jagjot was batting on 89 off 135 balls with five fours and five sixes and giving him company was Sanskar Chavate on 5.
Vidarbha skipper Mohd Faiz won the toss and had no hesitation in batting first and by the end of the day his decision proved right.
There were moments where the hosts seemed to be in the game but alas it was not to be so. The bowling lacked the much-needed punch to bowl out a strong Vidarbha batting line-up.
The question that will be asked in the coming days will be whether the selectors erred by keeping someone like the experienced Saranu Nishanth among the standbys. Also, if the presence of left-arm spinner Nitin Sai Goud would have made a difference to the total.
https://khelkhiladis.com/nishanth-named-as-standby-for-hyd-under-23-team/
Vidarbha began briskly as openers Vedant Dighade and Abhishek Agrawal put on 44 for the first wicket before Vedant (19) was caught behind by Aravelly Avanish off Mohd Abdul Adnan.
Abhishek (33) and Shree Choudhary then added 26 before Hyderabad struck again. Abhishek was claimed by Shashank after being caught by skipper Mayank Gupta.
Mohd Faiz (1) didn’t trouble the opposition much as he was trapped leg before by Wafi Kachchhi and Aditya Ahuja (8) too departed leaving Vidarbha delicately placed at 88 for four.
But, thereafter, the honours belonged to Vidarbha as the batters took control of the game. Shree Choudhary and Varun added 111 off 154 balls for the fifth wicket with Varun scoring 68 and Shree Choudhary adding 42.
Shree Choudhary fell for 67 after being caught by Raghava off Adnan.
But that only added to Hyderabad’s woes as Varun and Jagjot punished the hosts. They added 146 off 157 balls to take the game away. Varun contributed 78 and Jagjot 64 to the partnership before Varun was caught by Malik off Dinesh Rathod.
Varun scored a 138-ball 146 with 14 hits to the fence and seven over it.
It remains to be seen how far Jagjot is able to take his team total and if Hyderabad bowlers will come back fresh on the morrow to end the visitor’s innings. After that it will be left to the Hyderabad batters to show off their skills.
SCOREBOARD
Vidarbha (1st innings): Vedant Dighade c Avanish b Adnan 19, Abhishek S Agrawal c Gupta b Shashank 33, Shree Choudhary c Raghava b Adnan 67, Md Faiz lbw Kachchhi 1, Aditya Ahuja c Gupta b Shashank 8, Varun Raj Singh Bisht c Malik b Rathod 146, Jagjot (batting) 89, Himanshu Kawale c Raghava b Malik 1, Sanskar Chavate (batting) 5; Extras: (NB4, W2, B2) 8. Total: (For seven wickets in 85 overs) 377.
Fall of wickets: 1-44, 2-70, 3-75, 4-88, 5-199, 6-345, 7-348.
Bowling: Malik 13-3-38-1, Dinesh Rathod 15-2-72-1, Mohd Abdul Adnan 13-0-47-2, Shashank M 19-1-82-2, Wafi Kachchhi 16-1-81-1, M Ruthvik Yadav 7-0-40-0, Mayank Gupta 2-0-15-0.
