the former two times champions Vidarbha will definitely go for bonus points with a view to consolidate their position in the points tally. The match will be played at Ahmedabad from Friday.
In a remarkable turnaround, playing on home turf Vidarbha had conceded first innings lead to Services who made 241 in the first innings. However, Vidarbha were all out for 219 due to top order failure. But in the second innings, thanks to Aditya Thakare and other Vidarbha pacers Umesh Yadav and Darshan Nalkande, Vidarbha bowled them out for 155 and then chased the target of 117 losing just three wickets. The combination of three pacers Thakre, Yadav and Nalkande worked for Vidarbha .VCA’s senior selection committee named Rajneesh Gurbani as replacement for Yash Thakur who withdrew from the team due to personal reasons.
As far as batters are concrned, Sanjay Ramaswamy played a brilliant knock of 84 in the second innings to ensure Vidarbha's victory. Wadkar in the first innings batted well and scored half century. The team management is expecting brilliant performances from professionals Dhruv Shorey and Karun Nair.
As far as Manipur are cocncerned, they faced crushing an innings and 69 run defeat at the hands of Maharashtra. Their batting failed in both the innings and they even failed to cross 150-rn mark. Vidarbha would like to take an advantage of it.
Teams (from)
Akshay Wadkar (Captain & wk, Aditya Sarvate (vice-captain), Faiz Faizal, Dhruv Shorey, Karun Nair, R. Sanjay, Shubham Dubey, Darshan Nalkande, Akshay Wakhare, Harsh Dubey, Yash Rathod, Siddhesh Wath (wk), Lalit Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Mohit Kale, Aditya Thakare and Rajneesh Gurbani.
Manipur: M Langlonyamba Singh (captain), Bishworjit Singh Konthoujam (vice captain), Ngariyanbam Johnson Singh, Longjam Ronald Meitei, Md Basir Rahman, Yumnam Karnajit Singh, Pukhrambam Prafullomani Singh, Narsingh Yadav, Bikash Singh, Kangabam Priyojit Singh, Rajkumar Rex Singh, L Kishan Singha, Nitesh Sedai, Lamabam Ajay Singh and Thokchom Kishan Singh.