Kolhar, rain take Vidarbha home against Railways

INDORE: Amit Paunikar knows Vidarbha bowling like the back of his hand. For this former Vidarbha opener, facing Sandeep Singh, Shreekant Wagh and Amol Jungade was like a Guzder League 'A' Division match against Eleven Stars, although the intensity level was different.
Paunikar-who represented Vidarbha at all age group BCCI tournaments and now plays for Railways-thrashed his former teammates to all corner of Emerald Heights School Ground and scored a belligerent unbeaten 150 (156b;13x4;6x6) out of Railways' 242-6 but still ended up on the losing side.It was his highest individual List A score.
The match was evenly balanced with Vidarbha needing 30 off 24 balls with four wickets in hand when heavy unseasonal rains stopped the match. Vidarbha, who scored 213-6 in 46 overs, were eventually declared the winners by four wickets through VJD method. They were ahead by 1 runs at that stage.
Railways can consider themselves unlucky as the match could have gone anywhere. Their pacers-Shailendra Gehlot and KK Upadhyaya were in the midst of good spell and Upadhyaya had one over left. Although Urvesh Patel (8*) and allrounder Shreekant Wagh (20;19b;1x6) stitched a small partnership after Vidarbha lost two quick wickets, that of well set Shalabh Shrivastava and Apoorv Wankhede, another wicket could have made things interesting.
The chase, however, was set up by Paunikar's former opening partner Akshay Kolhar (90;107b;9x4). The diminutive right-hander played a sensible knock and unlike Paunikar, he relied more on singles and doubles besides odd boundary. After early wickets of Faiz Fazal and Amol Ubarhande, he put Vidarbha innings back on track with skipper Hemang Badani and Shalabh Shrivastava (48;48b;5x4;1x6).
Kolhar looked all set for his maiden List A ton before he lost concentration and gifted his wicket to Karan Sharma. Shrivastava batted fluently while Wankhede was finding it difficult to get going. Their wickets, however, made things interesting till the rains played spoilsport.
The day belonged to Paunikar, who carried his bat through. The things weren't easy when Railways were put in. Sandeep and Wagh were making the ball talk and Paunikar took several blows on his body. Wagh removed in form Shivakant Shukla with a beauty but Paunikar was determined to do well for his new team.
In fact, his first 50 came in 28th over. Once he was set, Paunikar switched gears and carted Vidarbha bowlers with utter disdain. All his six sixes went out of the ground while he hit some glorious cover and off drives. The right-hander exploded in the final overs to help Railways post a competitive total and had it not rained, he might well have a perfect day. Except for Paunikar, none of the Railways batsmen found it easy on a helpful wicket. Shadab Khan was the second highest individual scorer with 20.
Sandeep again bowled well while Wagh who picked up three wickets. The left-armer struggled in the death overs when Paunikar was in full flow. Vidarbha now face Rajasthan while Railways will clash with UP on Sunday.