NAGPUR: Faiz Fazal was batting comfortably when the ball surprisingly started spinning on what is known as pacer-friendly wicket at Lahli. Vidarbha had lost their top-3 key batters and needed Faiz to bat longer in a must-win game. However, a controversial leg-before decision went against him and triggered a collapse that put Vidarbha on backfoot on Day-2 of the elite group 'G' Ranji Trophy match.
Assam's Riyan Parag, an offie, was the trouble-maker. He picked-up his first 5-wicket haul sending key batters packing. From 144 for 1, Assam reduced Vidarbha to 221 for 7 in a span of 27 overs. Later, Vidarbha's tail added 44 runs more to take their score to 265 for 9 at stumps. They still are trailing by 51 runs.
Faiz (86; 162b, 9x4) was calculative and batted with command in the company of Atharva Taide (42 off 80b). When both these southpaws were playing, Assam's every trick was dealt with confidence. They added 89 runs in 157 balls for the second wicket and no bowler came close to troubling them.
But Parag took the ball and spun the web around Vidarbha. He rolled one away from Taide, who edged it to slip. Ganesh Satish (3) edged a straighter to slip. Faiz went for a forward defence and the ball hit him near the waist of his backfoot and he was given out. Akshay Wadkar (23) was targeted with a slight off-spin that took his bottom edge which was caught by the stumper and Aditya Sarwate (11) was caught plumb.
With the big names of Vidarbha line-up out in a session, Assam's attack suddenly started looking good. They dismissed the next three batters, including Apoorv Wankhade (27), to add more trouble for the Faiz-led side.
Akshay Wakhare (11), Lalit Yadav (19) and Rajneesh Gurbani (15 n.o) added crucial runs towards the end.
Gurbani wipes out Assam tail, completes 100 FC wickets
Earlier in the morning, Vidarbha pacer Rajneesh Gurbani grabbed his first five-wicket haul after 2017 Ranji Trophy final. The pacer wiped out tail by taking three Assam wickets out of four that fell on Friday to end their innings at 316. Their overnight score was 289 for 6. With this seventh 5-wicket haul of Gurbani, he completed 100 wickets in First-Class cricket.
BRIEF SCORES
Assam 316 (Sarupam Purkayastha 113, Riyan Parag 48; Rajneesh Gurbani 5/77, Aditya Sarvate 3/64) versus Vidarbha 265/9 (Faiz Fazal 86, Atharva Taide 42; Riyan Parag 5/68, Siddharth Sarmah 1/35). Vidarbha trail by 51 runs
