Thakare, Rathod put Vidarbha in command

At close of play on Day 3, Vidarbha were 169/5 in their second innings, enjoying an overall lead of 297 runs with five wickets in hand.

At the crease were Yash Rathod (55*) and Harsh Dubey (29*). The duo has so far added 55 runs for the sixth wicket, having rescued Vidarbha from a potentially disastrous situation when they were 114/5.

Vidarbha's second innings lacked solidity as well as fluency. And to make matters worse, they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Athava Taide (19), Dhruv Shorey (20) and Karun Nair (29) all got starts but failed to carry on. Danish Malewar (0) and skipper Akshay Wadkar (8) fell cheaply, but Dubey and Rathod settled nerves in the dressing room by batting confidently and seeing out the day.

Earlier, Vidarbha pacer Aditya Thakare finished with a five-wicket haul (5/34) and his fellow pacers Yash Thakur and Nachiket Bhute scalped two apiece to dismiss Tamil Nadu for 225.

Barring Pradosh Ranjan Paul (48) and Sonu Yadav (32) none of the other TN batters stayed long enough to make an impression.

A first-innings lead of 128 runs came in very handy for Vidarbha who will look to add as many runs as they can before going for the kill with the ball.

BRIEF SCORES

Vidarbha 1st innings 353 all out in 121.1 overs (Dhruv Shorey 26, Danish Malewar 75, Akshay Wadkar 24, Karun Nair 122, Harsh Dubey 69; Sonu Yadav 3/91, Vijay Shankar 3/75)

Tamil Nadu 1st innings 225 in 64.3 overs (Andre Siddarth 65, Pradosh Ranjan Paul 48, Sonu Yadav 32; Aditya Thakare 5/34, Nachiket Bhute 2/54, Yash Thakur 2/78)

Vidarbha 2nd innings 169/5 in 62 overs (Karun Nair 29, Yash Rathod 55 batting, Harsh Dubey 29 batting; Sai Kishore 2/47)

Vidarbha lead by 297 runs