Nagpur: Skipper Jaydev Unadkat removed run-machine Wasim Jaffer with a gem of a delivery as Saurashtra dominated the opening day of the Ranji Trophy final by reducing defending champions Vidarbha to 200 for seven here Sunday. It proved to be a good toss to lose for Saurashtra, who succeeded in removing the most impactful Vidarbha batsmen, Jaffer (23) and captain Faiz Fazal (16) cheaply.
Saurashtra bowlers, especially Unadkat (2-20) and his pace colleague Chetan Sakariya (1-13), kept the rival batsmen on a tight leash. Unadkat was consistently accurate with his nagging line and length while Sakariya swung the ball and troubled the batsmen with movement.
The defending champions struggled to create partnerships and had it not been for the 57-run seventh-wicket stand between Akshay Wadkar (45) and Akshay Karnewar (31 batting), they would have been in more mess. The batsmen were too circumspect, save Ganesh Satish (32) and Wadkar, who went for their shots in their small yet crucial innings. Mohit Kale (35 of 126 balls) too got a start but did not build on that.
Batting at number eight, Karnewar produced some lusty hits in a sensible knock in the final session. Saurashtra would fancy their chances from here on, having finished runners-up twice in the last seven seasons. Sakariya got only one wicket (he was unlucky not to get Jaffer lbw) and that too towards the fag end but was easily the best bowler of the day. In 14 testing overs he bowled, the diminutive pacer conceded just 13 runs.