Wadkar, Taide take Vidarbha to QF, stun Maha by 7 wkts

Riding on half-centuries by captain Akshay Wadkar and Atharva Taide, Vidarbha stunned fancied Maharashtra by seven wickets in the first pre-quarterfinal of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at New Delhi on Tuesday to enter the last-eight stage of the national T20 championship.

Vidarbha will lock horns with Rajasthan in the quarterfinal on November 18 at Airforce Complex Ground, Palam, New Delhi.

Opting to field at the Feroz Shah Kotla, Vidarbha restricted Maharashtra to 157/8 despite a brisk 45-ball 66 by one-down Rahul Tripathi. Then while chasing the target Vidarbha rode on half-centuries by opener Atharva Taide (56, 38 b, 6x4, 1x6)) and skipper Akshay Wadkar (58 not out 47b, 7x4) to chase down the target with 13 balls to spare.

Earlier Vidarbha suffered an early jolt when opening batsman Siddhesh Wath returned to the pavilion on duck. Then Taide and skipper Wadkar played sensibly rotating the strike and punishing the poor delivery. They didn't allow the rival bowlers to dominate. In process, they developed 96 run partnership for second wicket. Finally, Kazi gave breakthrough Maharashtra by dismissing Taide with 96 runs on board Young Shubham Dubey (18, 12b, 2x6) smashed two towering sixes. However, while going for another, he was caught by Sheikh on the boundary by Palkar. After Dubey fell, the skipper took the onus upon himself to complete the job in the company of Jitesh Sharma (28 not out off 7 balls), who smashed three consecutive sixes to romp of the victory.

Earlier Maharashtra lost skipper Naushad Shaikh (0), who was trapped in front of the wicket by young right-arm pacer Yash Thakur (3/17), in the second over.

Then Tripathi, who struck five boundaries and three sixes, rallied the innings with opener Yash Nahar (29), as the two added 64 runs for the second wicket.

But left-arm orthodox bowler Akshay Karnewar (2/25) brought Vidarbha back into contention by removing a well-set Nahar to leave Maharashtra at 77/2.

An out-of-form Kedar Jadhav (6) became Karnewar's second scalp as Maharashtra slipped to 91/3. Vidarbha bowlers kept making inroads and did not allow the opposition batters to settle.

Thanks to Tripathi's knock, Maharashtra closed in on 160.

Chasing 158, Vidarbha lost opener Siddhesh Wath (0) in the first over. But Taide, who hammered six boundaries and a maximum, along with skipper Wadkar, knocked Maharashtra out of the tournament with their match-winning 95-run stand for the second wicket.

Brief scores:

Maharashtra 157/8 (Rahul Tripathi 66, Yash Nahar 29; Yash Thakur 3/17, Akshay Karnewar 2/25) lost to Vidarbha 160/3 (Akshay Wadkar 58 not out, Atharva Taide 56; Mukesh Choudhry 1/24) by seven wickets.