Kalidindi Raju wreaked havoc as he wiped out the Vidarbha top order before No.5 bat Yash Rathod struck a timely century to help Vidarbha reach 267 for seven on the first day of their four-day Ranji Trophy match in Ananthapur on Thursday.
Electing to bat first, Vidarbha failed to make a good start as they lost opener Aman Mokhade (21), who was bowled by Raju. Four runs later, Raju struck again. This time he had Danish Malewar (0) caught by Nitish Kumar Reddy.
In the following over, Raju had Atharva Taide (13) caught behind by KS Bharat, who had a good outing with three catches.
With his tail up and firing on all cylinders, Raju picked up his fourth and final wicket of the day when he had Ravikumar Samarth (9) caught behind by Bharat.
At four for 45, the chips were down for Vidarbha, but they found a savior in Yash Rathod. The batter held one end up and strung three crucial partnerships which bailed out Vidarbha.
Rathod first added 93 for the fifth wicket with Rohit V Binkar. Rathod scored 48 of those runs from 87 balls, while Rohit made 37 off 93 balls. Rohit was caught by Bharat off K Saiteja after making 37.
Skipper Harsh Dubey (9) was trapped leg before by Nitish Kumar but Rathod found another good partner in DG Nalkande (37; 93 balls,5×4)and the duo added 76 off 100 balls for the seventh wicket.
Both players scored an equal number of runs – 36 – in the partnership. The number of balls each consumed too was identical.
After Nalkande’s (36) departure, caught and bowled by Saurabh Kumar, Rathod and Bhute (25 batting) added 35 for the unbroken eighth wicket with Bhute doing the bulk of the scoring.
Rathod was batting on 104 off 176 balls with 12 boundaries and Andhra will like to see his back soon on the morrow.
Raju finished the day with figures of four for 51.
SCOREBOARD
Vidarbha: Atharva Taide c Bharat b Raju 13, Aman Mokhade b Raju 21, Daniesh Malewar c Nitish b Raju 0, Ravikumar Samarth c Bharat b Raju 9, Yash Rathod (batting) 104, Rohit Binkar c Bharat b Saiteja 37, Harsh Dubey lbw Nitish 9, Darshan Nalkande c & b Saurabh 36, Nichikete Bhute (batting) 25; Extras: (B4, LB2, NB1, W6) 13. Total: (For 7 wickets, 81 overs) 267.
Fall of wickets: 1-29, 2-33,3-38, 4-45, 5-138, 6-156, 7-232.
Bowling: Nitish Kumar Reddy 14-3-51-1, KV Sashikanth 14-2-50-0, Kalidindi Raju 16-5-51-4, Kavuri Saiteja 12-2-34-1, Tripurana Vijay 15-1-47-0, Saurabh Kumar 10-1-28-1.
