NAGPUR: A day after helping Vidarbha reach a respectable total with a century, allrounder Dharmendra Thakur sent the Maharashtra outfit on the backfoot on Monday. He took two important wickets and put Vidarbha in the driver's seat on Day-3 of the Cooch Behar Trophy quarterfinal match in Pune.
Right-arm pacer Dharmendra (11-4-23-2) provided an important breakthrough by breaking the opening wicket partnership which led to Maharashtra losing momentum as well as 6 wickets within the next 24 overs in the last session.
Replying to Vidarbha's 494, Maharashtra were reeling at 175 for 6 in 69 overs at stumps. They are trailing by 319 runs.
Maharashtra openers Yash Boramani (34 off 90b) and Arshin Kulkarni (61 off 130b) gave a good start over 36 overs. The duo forced Vidarbha to use all their options by playing along the ground with the straight bat.
However, Vidarbha skipper Mohd. Faiz persisted with Dharmendra from one end. After toiling for 36 overs, the pacer bowled a beauty outside off that took Boramani's edge and ended his stay. Boramani got out in 37th over and by the 60th over, Maharashtra's score became 156 for 6.
Earlier in the morning, Vidarbha resumed at 442 for 7 and their double centurion Faiz (230; 524b, 19x4, 2x6) got out after adding just one run.
Vidarbha were eyeing the 500-run mark and had the last three batters left. Pacer Pratham Maheshwari launched an all out attack. He scored unbeaten 41 (46b; 5x4, 2x6). Pratham took the last man Rajsingh Chauhan (5) in company for the 49-run partnership for the tenth wicket.
BRIEF SCORES: Vidarbha (Overnight 442-7) 494 all out in 193 overs (Mohd. Faiz 230, Dharmendra Thakur 111, Pratham Maheshwari 41*; Prathamesh Gawade 4-125, Yash Borkar 4-93) vs Maharashtra 175 for 6 in 69 overs (Arshin Kulkarni 61, Digjivay Patil 53*; Dharmendra Thakur 2-23, Ashit Singh, Rajsingh Chauhan, Jagjot Sasan 1 wkt each)
