Ranji: Vidarbha look to stay on top

Nagpur: Going into the last league match, Vidarbha have the luxury of not chasing a win to qualify for the Ranji Trophy knockouts. Still, Vidarbha may not have the going easy when they face the in-form Haryana at VCA’s Civil Lines stadium from Friday.
On the back of a big win over Maharashtra, former champions Vidarbha would be high on confidence. The batting line-up, after an indifferent start, has hit high notes in the last few matches.
Karun Nair, with back-to-back centuries against Rajasthan and Maharashtra, has hit the purple patch at the right time.Skipper Akshay Wadkar continued with his good form with a brisk 90 against Maharashtra in the last match. So far, Wadkar has 331 runs from six matches, including five fifties.
Dhruv Shorey too is coming on the back of a solid knock. After a century against Jharkhand, Shorey scored 92 in the last match against Maharashtra to take his season tally to 306 runs. Atharva Taide, after a quiet last match, would again look to get back among the runs.
Youngster Yash Rathod too showed that he is ready for the senior circuit with productive outings in the last two matches. Experienced Faiz Fazal too has been included in the team.
Vidarbha’s bowling unit has been on the hunt throughout the season. Lanky medium pacer Aditya Thakare leads the pack with 29 wickets in the season. Vice-captain Aditya Sarvate has 25 wickets to his name. The two are expected to cause maximum damage in the last league match.
TEAMS (From)
VIDARBHA: Akshay Wadkar (Captain, wicketkeeper), Faiz Fazal, Umesh Yadav, Atharva Taide, Dhruv Shorey, Karun Nair, Aditya Sarvate, Akshay Wakhare, Yash Rathod, Mohit Kale, Harsh Dubey, Lalit Yadav, Yash Thakur, Aditya Thakare, Darshan Nalkande, Siddhesh Wath, Danish Malewar.
HARYANA: Rahul Tewatia, Jayant Yadav, Ashok Menaria, Ankit Kumar, Yuvraj Singh, Himanshu Rana, Nishant Singh, Rohit Sharma, Sumit Kumar, Piyush Dahiya, Anshul Kamboj, Kapil Hooda, Mayank Shandilya, Yashu Sharma.