Five Vidarbha cricketers in U-19 Zonal Cricket Academy

NAGPUR: Vidarbha junior teams have done well this season and players are duly getting rewarded for their performances. Five Vidarbha players -

Parth Rekhade

,

Aditya Thakre

,

Atharva Tayade

,

Yash Rathod

and Yash Kadam have been selected for

Central Zone Zonal Cricket Academy

Camp (CZZCA) to be held in Jaipur from April 20 to May 14.

Vidarbha Under-19 finished runners-up in the

Vinoo Mankad One-day Trophy

, while they just missed out on a knock-out berth in Cooch Behar Trophy. In fact, they beat Punjab and Baroda, both of who qualified for the knock-outs.

Left-arm spinner Parth had a great season where he led from the front. He picked up 34 wickets in 6 matches at an impressive average of 15.94 and economy rate of 1.98. He single-handedly scripted victories against Odisha and Punjab by picking nine wickets each in both the matches. Later, he was included in the India Under-19 probables camp before England series and played a warm-up One-day match against visiting side.

In Vinoo Mankad One-Day Trophy, left-arm spinner Parth was again instrumental as he captured 10 wickets in 5 matches at an average of 14.20 and economy of 3.89. Later, he picked up 23 wickets in three matches of Under-23 Col CK Nayudu Trophy.

His teammate, Atharva was impressive in Vinoo Mankad Trophy as well as four-day format. The allrounder was among the top ten Indian batsmen in the One-day tournament with 200 runs in 5 matches with 71 being his best score. In multi-day format, he was impressive with the ball and picked 21 wickets including a five-wicket haul in 6 matches with 5-29 being the best figure.

Another promising batsmen of the team Yash Rathod stood tall during the season and scored 370 runs at an average of 37 in 6 matches. His tally included a century and a half century. Yash Kadam was included in the last match against Odisha and he made a brilliant 119 on a difficult wicket to help Vidarbha record a comprehensive 10-wicket victory.

Medium pacer Aditya Thakare missed out most of the season due to injury but he still has a chance for the 2018 Under-19 World Cup. The Central Zone selectors have showed faith in his abilities. Thakare had a great 2015-16 season in Cooch Behar Trophy where he picked up 34 wickets at an impressive average of 10.64 in the tournament.

Vidarbha Under-16 and Under-22 teams have also done well this season. While Under-16 team emerged all India champion, Under-22 reached semifinal for the first time in the history.