Vidarbha gains momemtum on day 1 with late wickets

Pune: Maharashtra had a dream start to their opening Ranji Trophy match against defending champions Vidarbha. The home side cruised to 116/0 at lunch time.

From there to the stumps on Day 1, they had  probably the most forgettable day in their recent history. They lost the wicket of Rohit Motwani just before stumps, opener Chirag Khurana missed the century by 11 runs playing a rash shot and  three batsmen dismissed in the forties.

Disastrous day
This all culminated in what would’ve been a statement of intent by Maharashtra, to handing over the momentum to the visitors. To their credit, Vidarbha bowlers, Aditya Thakare and Akshay Wakhare in specific dried up runs from one end and forced Maharashtra batters take unwanted risks in search of elusive runs in the second session. Aditya Sarwate and Akshay Wakhare claimed two wickets each for Vidarbha as they were in ascendancy, reducing Maharashtra 284/6 on Day 1.

Mixed day for big guns
Cheteshwar Pujara turned out for Saurashtra against Chhattisgarh but his hopes of getting quality batting-time ahead of the Australia tour was hit when he was forced to retire hurt with a sore neck. Pujara was on 30 off 64 balls when he was forced out. Saurashtra, who were asked to bat first, were on 282 for 3 at stumps with opener Snell Patel top-scoring with 91. 

Tamil Nadu’s R Ashwin bowled 21 overs for one wicket against Madhya Pradesh on an attritional day of cricket in Dindigul. Asked to field first, Tamil Nadu got Ankit Dane in the second over but Aryaman Birla and Rajat Patidar kept them at bay with a 124-run stand for the second wicket. It was Ashwin who broke that stand when he had Birla caught at silly point for 51. Ashwin ended with figures of 21-4-49-1 as Madhya Pradesh finished on 214 for 3.

Brief Scores
- Meghalaya 87/6 v Arunachal Pradesh 166
- Tripura 268/7 v Services
- Nagaland 189/4 v Mizoram 106
- Jharkhand 266/6 v Assam
- Odisha 232/6 v Haryana
- Sikkim 299/9 v Manipur
- Punjab 261/6 v Andhra
- Gujarat 15/0 v Baroda 290
- Maharashtra 284/6 v Vidarbha
- Mumbai 278/5 v Railways
- Saurashtra 282/3 v Chhattisgarh
- Bengal 266/6 v Himachal Pradesh
- Kerala 231/4 v Hyderabad
- Madhya Pradesh 214/3 v Tamil Nadu
- Rajasthan 300/3 v Jammu and Kashmir
- Uttar Pradesh 153/1 v Goa 152
- Uttarakhand 201/7 v Bihar 60