Maharashtra hold upper hand on bowlers' day

NAGPUR: Senior VCA scorer and statistician Dilip Singh Upring had a busy Monday. He was hardly attending the phone calls for scores updates as he normally does because wickets were falling like nine pins. As many as 26 wickets fell on Day 2 of the Bapuna Cup tie between Bapuna XI and Maharashtra XI where the visitors now look firm favourites to notch up their first win in the competition. Resuming at overnight 14-2, Vidarbha managed 110 in their first innings — thanks largely to some bold hitting by Sandeep Singh (37, 32b, 7x4, 1x6)—losing all eight remaining wickets in the extended pre-lunch session. The Vidarbha pacer didn't stop here. He came out with firing and bowled an excellent lively spell (8-4-12-5) to send Maharashtra XI packing for just 97 in their second innings. Chasing 192, Vidarbha were going smoothly as openers Faiz Fazal and Shiv Sunder Das added 30 in just 8 overs. Once they were separated, it was like watching highlight package as Bapuna XI middle-order succumbed to the pace quartet of Rahul Tripathi, Azhar Ansari, Sajin Sureshnath and Nitish Salekar. The hosts were reeling at 90 for the loss of eight wickets at stumps, still needing 102 for win. Maharashtra pacers proved too hot for the strong Bapuna XI side—which had most of the current Vidarbha players—and almost bowled them out twice in just two sessions. Yes, the wicket was offering something to the pacers but it wasn't an unplayable one. The ball was seaming and stopping throughout the day but except for a couple of batsmen, others hardly showed any respect to the moving ball and paid the heavy price. If they play like this, the road ahead in the Elite Group won't be easy.Faiz Fazal looked good during his hour-long stay before losing his stumps to a quick delivery by Tripathi which also kept very low. Shiv Sunder Das yet again failed to utilize some useful batting practice ahead of crucial season while Ranjit Paradkar got out in a same fashion in both innings. Paradkar was looking comfortable in both innings until he was undone by deliveries that stopped a bit. Ravi Jangid fought well in the first innings before falling to poor shot in the second while Gaurav Upadhyaya didn't spend sufficient time in the middle. That can't take any credit away from Maharashtra pacers, who were just right on the money and bowled according to the plan. Their length was immaculate and most importantly all the bowlers were making the batsmen play virtually every ball.BRIEF SCORESMaharashtra 204 & 97 in 29 overs (Sunil Yadav 20, Rahul Tripathi 19, Naushad Sheikh 16; Sandeep Singh 5-12, Sumit Ruikar 2-9, Swapnil Bandiwar 1 for 28) vs Bapuna XI 110 in 41.2 overs (Sandeep Singh 37, Ravi Jangid 34; Azhar Ansari 4-28, Satyajai Bachav 2-2, Rahul Tripathi 2-32) & 90-8 in 21.5 overs (Faiz Fazal 27, Urvesh Patel 25, Shiv Sunder Das 16; Rahul Tripathi 4-16, Azhar Ansari 3-24, Sajin Sureshnath 1-22).