Ranji Trophy: Fazal, Ramaswamy put Vidarbha in command

Nagpur Tempers flared at Bengal Cricket Academy Ground, Kalyani on Thursday. Former India seamer Ashok Dinda had a verbal exchange with

Vidarbha

opener Sanjay Ramaswamy just after the lunch session.

Dinda got frustrated with the way Vidarbha openers—Faiz Fazal (142, 232b, 22x4) and R Sanjay (117, 238b, 13x4)—batted. When Bengal skipper Manoj Tiwary won the toss and put Vidarbha in, he would have hoped to bundle the opposition out quickly.

There was swing in the first hour, which the Vidarbha openers negated with utmost patience and showed required application. Once the moisture was dried out, the wicket got better and better to bat on.

Faiz and Sanjay made full use of the conditions to hit strokeful centuries and stitched the record 259-run opening stand in team’s history as Vidarbha dictated the terms on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Group ‘D’ match.

When stumps were drawn due to bad light, Vidarbha were 285 for the loss of skipper Faiz’s wicket. Wasim Jaffer (18) was batting solidly at the other end.

Faiz and Sanjay broke their own record of 171-run opening stand, which came against Saurashtra last season. It was Faiz’s third successive hundred of the season and his 14th in the First Class cricket. Sanjay hit his third First Class and second of the season.

Vidarbha openers made a sound opening statement. With runs under their belt, both Faiz and Sanjay looked confident. One could judge the positive approach with the way they defended early on. They left the ball outside off stump with aplomb and had no trouble in defending.

Faiz set the tone for the day with a glorious flick off his pads to Dinda on the first ball of the match. The southpaw was timing the ball extremely well. He was just caressing the ball through the gaps. Sanjay, on the other hand, was absorbing pressure at the other end but whenever the opportunity came to score, he accepted those gleefully.

Sanjay’s driving off backfoot was of the highest quality. He was right behind the ball every time he hit. The bounce on the wicket helped both batsmen playing on the rise. Sanjay started with a backfoot cover drive off Ishan Porel after seeing off early testing spells by Dinda and left-arm pacer Kanish Seth.

When Tiwary introduced off-spinner Amir Gani, Sanjay danced down the wicket and lofted him over his head for a boundary. They didn’t want Gani to settle in.

In his next over, Faiz hit a glorious cover drive. Soon, Gani was out of the attack. A well-time cover-drive off Seth brought Faiz his fifty. In the penultimate over before lunch, Sanjay completed his fifty with a superb backfoot drive off Dinda.

The duo continued to pummel Bengal bowlers after lunch. They kept their composure intact despite the heated exchange with Dinda. Faiz played inside out to Gani to enter the 90s and a delicate late cut in the next over brought his hundred.

The visitors were sitting pretty at tea as the openers brought the first 200-run opening stand in the history of Vidarbha cricket. First ball after tea, Sanjay cracked Porel away on backfoot through covers to enter the nineties. A fluent off-drive off Seth took him to 97 and a square cut off Dinda brought his hundred.

SCOREBOARD

Vidarbha (1st Innings): F Fazal lbw b Dinda 142, R Sanjay batting 117, Wasim Jaffer not out 18.

Extras: (nb 8) 8.

Total: (1 wicket, 83 overs).

Fall of wicket: 1-259.

Bowling: Ashok Dinda 19-2-62-1, Kanishk Seth 23-4-82-0, Ishan Porel 26-7-71-0, Amir Gani 11-0-52-0, Koushik Ghosh 1-0-5-0, Manoj Tiwary 3-0-13-0.