End of Day’s Play for Remaining of India 330 all out (Vihari 114, Agarwal 95, Wakhare 3-62, Sarwate 3-99) v Vidarbha
Having been 171 for one at one stage, RoI suffered a collapse, losing their next nine wickets for only 159 runs, mainly due to exceptional bowling from Vidarbha’s spinners.
The turning point came with Agarwal’s dismissal in the thirty-ninth over. Soon after surviving a close lbw appeal, he mistimed his drive and was caught at cover, yielding Yash Thakur (substituting for the injured Umesh Yadav) his only wicket of the day.
In the morning, Agarwal began aggressively, capitalizing on the width provided by new-ball bowler Rajneesh Gurbani to hit two early boundaries. He then took on Sarwate, similar to his approach against Nathan Lyon on his Test debut at the MCG, using his footwork to loft shots over the off side. Despite a missed chance when wicketkeeper Akshay Wadkar failed to hold onto an edge from a attempted cover drive, Agarwal dominated the session.
Early in Vihari’s innings, luck was on his side. When he was yet to score, a delivery from Thakur narrowly missed his outside edge. Although Vidarbha players appealed vehemently for a caught-behind, the umpire remained unmoved. Replays indicated some deviation off the bat, but with no DRS in play, the decision stood.
When Agarwal and Vihari batted together in the first session following Anmolpreet Singh’s dismissal for 15, they scored at a brisk rate, maintaining a run rate of over 5 per over for most of the session.
The post-lunch session witnessed Vihari reaching his fifty with a flurry of boundaries in the thirty-eighth over. He took on Sarwate, hitting two fours and a six to complete his fifty. Later in the day, in the 77th over, he confidently reached his sixteenth first-class century with a straight drive. Although it seemed like he would end the day unbeaten, Sarwate, the bowler Vihari had earlier targeted, induced an outside edge from Vihari’s attempted cut, which went straight to Faiz Fazal at slip.
Wakhare was the most successful among Vidarbha bowlers with figures of three for 62, followed closely by Sarwate, who despite a shaky start, also claimed three wickets. As the day progressed and the pitch heated up, Sarwate found more turn, dismissing both Jadeja and Vihari successively. Gurbani, too, was rewarded for maintaining a disciplined line, claiming two for 58. Left-arm spinner Akshay Karnewar, who even experimented with a right-arm delivery for a single ball, and Thakur chipped in with a wicket each.
