Vidarbha's Ranji journey: More misses than hits

NAGPUR: After winning the Ranji Trophy title twice, this was the third consecutive season that Vidarbha could not qualify for the knockouts. They misfired on more occasions than they hit the target over the 45-day FC tournament. Vidarbha think-tank must be pondering over a few of their decisions that could have changed their fate. TOI puts light on things that worked against them… Change in winning combinationAfter winning the first two matches, the combination was changed. They lost the very game in which as many as four changes were made against Jammu & Kashmir. From there, Vidarbha did not look a settled side. Vidarbha Under-19 team and under-15 girls' teams got great success by holding on to their winning combination. The most successful coach Chandrakant Pandit also never changed his winning combination this much. Tactical coach missingTactical moves and rigorous planning in the coach's drawing room have generated immense results for Vidarbha in previous seasons. Vidarbha wanted more analysis of oppositions and in-match planning from their coach Sanjeev Sharma. However, this was not the case with Sharma holding the reins.No CampThere was a gap of 19 days between the last day of Vijay Hazare Trophy and the first match of Ranji Trophy. Yet, there was no specific camp called for the probables like it has been conducted in years before. Guzder League 2-day was organized and was termed as ‘match practice'. Owing to the disparity between Guzder League and Ranji Trophy standards, questions were raised on how this could be called ‘match practice'. Since it is the coach's call to conduct a camp, the role of Sharma came under the scanner for the first time.No horses for coursesVidarbha has such a vast talent pool that they have a player for every condition. They were caught on sticky wickets twice — In Indore against MP and in Nagpur against Jammu & Kashmir. In both the matches, the absence of Rajneesh Gurbani and Aditya Thakare was felt. And Vidarbha lost both the matches. Different strokes for different folksPerform or perish was the formula selectors opted while sidelining players like Ganesh Satish, Aman Mokhade and Mohit Kale. However, the same formula was not used for judging a pacer despite his below-average record on paper.What a start!Skipper Faiz Fazal notched-up a century each in the campaign opener against Railways. His performance was complemented by spinners' duo Akshay Wakhare and Aditya Sarwate, both 9 wickets each in the match, who took their side to a massive 194-run victory.Stand-outVidarbha defended the lowest score — 73 — in Ranji Trophy history against Gujarat at Jamtha stadium in their penultimate match. This victory was special as Vidarbha was playing this game after two consecutive defeats. Left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate grabbed a match haul of 11 wickets, while Jitesh Sharma in company of lower order scored crucial runs.