Ranji Trophy: Vidarbha pushed to the wall by Services

NAGPUR: What Vidarbha failed to do the other day, Services managed on Saturday. After pushing rivals to the corner, they never let off the pressure. The result: Vidarbha now have a mountain, a daunting one, to climb in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group ‘A’ match.
After restricting Services’ first innings to 241 in the morning, Vidarbha botched up the plot in a big way.The batters, barring skipper Akshay Wadkar, failed as Vidarbha slid to 191 for 8 in 74 overs by the end of Day 2, trailing by 50 runs at VCA’s Civil Lines Stadium.
The defending champions can only pray for Umesh Yadav, unbeaten on 14, to wield a long handle on Sunday and the two tailenders to give him company for a considerable time.
The Vidarbha collapse began early, triggered by right-arm medium pacer Varun Choudhary. Chasing a wide delivery, the first legal one of the innings, brought the downfall of experienced Faiz Fazal. Professional Dhruv Shorey got cleaned up. Same fate awaited Karun Nair, the other professional.
The three top guns were back in the hut with just 56 on the board. All three scalped by Choudhary. Nair did all the hard work, got his eye in, scored 24 off 59 balls, before getting his stumps dislodged. Same was the story of opener Sanjay Ramaswamy. He saw off the new ball, faced 82 deliveries for 25, but failed to carry on. He was trapped in front of the wicket by medium pacer Poonam Poonia.
The four blows meant debutant Shubham Dubey and skipper Akshay Wadkar were at the crease, much earlier than what Vidarbha would have hoped for.
The longer format invariably churns out subtle individual subplots. The Wadkar-Dubey partnership highlighted this trademark. Wadkar was made to bat at all possible positions during the shorter format tournaments earlier in the season. Perhaps, to prove a point, Wadkar scored his fifty in 59 balls, a strike rate of almost 83.
At the other end Dubey, tagged a slam-bang T20 specialist, showed the ‘khadoos’ side of his batting. Dubey curbed his natural game, hitting just a boundary till the 75th ball of his innings. Dubey showed he has the patience required to last in the longer format.
With the two looking good to take Vidarbha on top, Services brought Choudhary back into the attack. The medium pacer delivered again. Dubey inside edged a Choudhary delivery to wicketkeeper. Wadkar followed soon after as Vidarbha found themselves pushed to the wall again.
BRIEF SCORES
Services (Overnight 223 for 8 in 80 overs): 241 all out in 87.5 overs (Rajat Paliwal 84, Lovekesh Bansal 73; Aanshul Gupta 21; Aditya Thakare 3-39, Umesh Yadav 3-73, Darshan Nalkande 2-40) lead Vidarbha: 191 for 8 in 74 overs (Akshay Wadkar 59, Shubham Dubey 32, Sanjay Ramaswamy 25; Varun Choudhary 4-44, Poonam Poonia 2-33) by 50 runs.