NAGPUR: Young and fiery Yash Thakur was the only Vidarbha pacer who consistently asked Tripura batters questions on a pitch that assisted pacers throughout the day. He bowled long economical spells, moved it both ways from the short-of-length and never made the batters look comfortable at the crease. It was Thakur's lively bowling and 2-wicket burst towards the fag end of the day that kept Tripura under check on Day-2 of the Ranji Trophy match.
Despite Thakur's (18-6-39-4) four-wicket haul, Tripura secured first innings lead courtesy confident knocks from Sudip Chatterjee (83 off 183b) and Wriddhiman Saha (66 off 99b). In reply to Vidarbha's 264, Tripura were 290 for 7 at stumps on Day-2 of the Ranji Trophy match.
Both Chatterjee and Saha played other Vidarbha pacers — Lalit Yadav and Rajneesh Gurbani — without any hassles. Both the pacers found it tough to find rhythm. Since Tripura batters were playing at ease, skipper Faiz Fazal tried to use Yadav and Gurbani from both the ends in search of a wicket, but the wicket eluded them.
Even Vidarbha fielders had an off day in the office as there were three dropped catches. R Sanjay dropped one in the 18th over, while Akshay Wadkar missed Chatterjee and Saha once each.
Vidarbha spinners — Aditya Sarwate (24-5-82-2) and Akshay Wakhare (19-3-61-1) — were at it again. They did all the hard work to dry up runs.
Tripura got a promising start with a 65-run partnership, which was broken by Sarwate. The spinner caught Das in a trap. Sarwate made Das play a sweep and had him caught at deep square-leg. Later, No. 3 Sridam Paul (47) was defeated in flight and top-edged Wakhare to the point. In the very next over, new-man Deepak Khatri gloved Thakur's bouncer to wicketkeeper Akshay Wadkar. In the first spell, Thakur bowled nine overs.
After Khatri's fall, both Saha and Chatterjee tested Vidarbha over the next 178 balls and took Tripura past the Vidarbha score with their 102-run partnership.
On the last ball (62nd over) before tea, Tripura's Chatterjee went for a frontfoot defense on Wakhare's bowling and the ball hit his pad. The entire Vidarbha side appealed in desperation but in vain.
Vidarbha tried all options in the third session but success came only in the last 10 overs of the day when Sarwate sent Chatterjee home by bowling a beautiful arm-ball which was caught at the 1st slip.
Then, with the second new ball, pacer Thakur moved it away from new-man Rajat Dey and had him caught behind. In the penultimate over, Thakur removed Saha with a sharp back-off-length delivery that rose at the batter and Wadkar did the rest.
