NAGPUR:
Bengal
batting was in shambles for the second day in a row as defending champions
Vidarbha
cruised to a nine-wicket victory in a
Ranji Trophy group A encounter riding on left-arm spinner
Aditya Sarwate's six-wicket haul.
Vidarbha scored 212 in their first innings in reply to Bengal's paltry 170 and then Sarwate spun a web on a difficult track to bowl the visitors out for 99 in their second essay. With 6 for 47 in the second innings, Sarwate finished with match figures of 10 for 100.
That target of 58 was achieved with minimum fuss in 13.5 overs losing skipper
Faiz Fazal's wicket as Vidarbha now have 17 points and are in contention for a quarter-final berth from the cross-pool combining groups A and B.
Bengal on the other hand will now find it extremely difficult after another disastrous batting performance with nine batsmen failing to reach double figures.
Veteran
Anushtup Majumdar
(29) was the only one who showed some resistance as Abhimanyu Easwaran's lean patch continued. On a pitch that was slightly challenging, save former skipper Manoj Tiwary's first innings knock, none of the Bengal players were able to show technique to last long enough and fight it out.
Earlier, Vidarbha were reduced to 101 for 5 at one stage but the two of three Akshays in the line-up -- Wadkar (49) and Karnewar (34) added 77 runs for the sicxth wicket not only to surpass the Bengal total but also demoralize the opposition on a track which was spinners' paradise.
Once the lead was 42, it was difficult for Bengal but once again, the performance was an indicator that some of the top-order batsmen barring Tiwary still remain flat-track bullies.
Brief ScoresBengal 170 and 99 (Aditya Sarwate 6/47)
Vidarbha 212 (Faiz Fazal 51, Akshay Wadkar 49, Arnab Nandi 3/51) and 61/1. Vidarbha 6. Bengal 0.
Gujarat 325. Rajasthan 142/1 (Manender Singh 61 batting).
Hyderabad 225. Andhra 237/1 (Prashanth Kumar 117 batting, Hanuma Vihari 41 batting)
Kerala 227 and 88/5 (Gurkeerat Singh Mann 4/27). Punjab 218.