Bowlers dominate day 1

After dismissing Saurashtra for 206, Vidarbha fritterd away advantage and lost four wickets for just 26 runs. With six wickets in hand, Vidarbha were trailing by 180 runs.

Earlier Vidarbha won the toss and elected to field first. Thanks to Indian pacer Umesh Yadav who captured four wickets for 56 runs. Saurashtra openers wicketkeeper batter Harvik Desai (68, 95b, 10x4) and Kevin Jivrajani (15, 45b, 3x4) gave confident start to the team that has yet to taste success this season. They played out Vidarbha pacers confidently in the first crucial hour. When they started to build up the healthy partnership, left-arm spinner Aditya Sarvate gave much needed breakthrough to Vidarbha removing Jivrajani with 63 runs on board. Yadav using his pace and swing got rid of Vishvarajsinh Jadeja (10) and them Yash Thakur clean bowled opener Desai.

Saurashtra star batter Cheteshwar Pujara (43, 105b, 4x4, 1x6) and experienced Sheldon Jackson (21, 25b, 3x4) using all their experience tried to steady the innings. When they were going to build up a partnership Yadav got rid of Jackson and broke the 39 run partnershp for fourth wicket. Yadav who was firing with all cylinders gave two quickblows to the opponetns by sending Vasavada and Prerak Mankad to the pavilion on duck. On the score of 154, Saurashtra lost seven wickets. When Pujara was heading towards half century, in form pacer Aditya Thakare got the prized scalp.

Captain Jaydev Unadkar remained not out on 28.

Vidarbha had a poor start after restricting the opponents on 206. Openers Dhruv Shorey (3) who is completely out of form and Sanjay Ramaswamy (9) returned to the pavilion cheaply. Taide who missed first two matches, contributed 11 whereas Karun Nair once again failed to deliver.

Brief scores

Saurashtra 1st innings: 206 all out in 58.4 overs (Harvik Desai 68, Cheteshwar Pujara 43, Jaydev Unadkar 28, Sheldon Jackson 21, Umesh Yadav 4 for 56, Aditya Sarvate 2 for 22, Harsh Dubey 2 for 15)

Vidarbha 1st innings: 26 for 4 in 19 overs (Atharva Taide 11, Sanjay Ramnaswamy 9, Unadkar, Chirag Jani and Prerak Mankad one wicket each).