Image Credit- PTI
The first day of the
Ranji Trophy semi-final between Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha in Nagpur was
dominated by Avesh Khan’s four-wicket haul. The MP quicks raced through
Vidarbha to bowl them out for 170 after being asked to bowl. MP was down 123
runs at the close of the day, 47 for 1.
In the eighth over, Avesh made an early impression by dismissing starter Dhruv
Shorey for a 12-ball 13. Shorey’s opening partner, Atharva Taide, got off to a
respectable start, hitting eight boundaries in his 63 balls. However, his stay
was brief as he was out for 39 in the 22nd over after nicking one off the
medium pace of Venkatesh Iyer to the wicketkeeper. After 75 deliveries, Aman
Mokhade was out of the game after six overs by Avesh.
After that, Vidarbha
collapsed, losing six wickets for just 36 runs and moving from 101 for 2 to 137
for 8. Nine out of the ten wickets on Saturday were taken by MP pacers, with
Anubhav Agarwal taking one and Kulwant Kehjroliya and Iyer taking two each. Karun
Nair smashed nine fours in his 63 off 105 balls thanks to his resistance.
Vidarbha passed 150 thanks to his 33-run ninth-wicket partnership with Umesh
Yadav (0), but they only managed to survive 56.3 overs when left-arm spinner
Kumar Karthikeya claimed the final wicket to limit Vidarbha to a below-par
total.
Yash Dubey, the
first batsman for MP, was out early after being caught behind for an 11 from 22
balls at Umesh’s pace. MP was well-positioned going into day two as
wicketkeeper Himanshu Mantri and Harsh Gawli both finished the day undefeated
at stumps with scores of 26 and 10, respectively.