Vidarbha's challenge comes to an end

Nagpur, Jan 15

After suffering third defeat in-a-row Vidarbha made an early exit from from the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Twenty20 cricket tournament at the Holkar Stadium in Indore on Friday.

In the third league match of the Elite Group D, Madhya Pradesh defeated Vidarbha by 21 runs.

Chasing 137, Vidarbha could able to score just 115 for the loss of 9 wickets in 20 overs.

After bowlers put up an excellent performance earlier in the day, batsmen failed to compliment their efforts. Only Siddhesh Wath (26, 15b, 2x4, 2x6) showed some resistance.. Darshan Nalkande (21, 28 b, 2x6) was another main contributor. For MP, medium-pacer Avesh Khan (5-17) was the main wicket taker. Ankit Sharma (2-21) and Mihir Hirwani (1-15) ably supported him.

Earlier thanks to debutants Aditya Thakare and Mohit Raut Vidarbha restricted Madhya Pradesh to 136 for 9.

Vidarbha’s new skipper Akshay Wakhare, who replaced injured regular skipper Ganesh Satish, won the toss and opted to field first.

Medium-pacer Aditya Thakare made an early breakthrough by sending MP opener Arpit Gaud to the pavilion in the very first over. Thakare then forced Gaud to edge and Wadkar made no mistake in the slip cordon.

Another debutant Mohit Raut also impressed. He got rid of MP’s in-form batsman Rajat Patidar (50: 41 balls, 6x4) to break the shackles.

Yash Thakur was the most sucessful bowler for Vidarbha as he took three wickets conceding just 25 runs.

Vidarbha has forgetul tournament so far as theh had lost by three wickets in the opener against Rajastha and then lost by 79 runs against Saurashtra.

Brief scores

Madhya Pradesh 136 for 9 in 20 overs (Rajat Patidar 50, Rakesh Thakur 32, Rishabh Chouhan 15 not out, Venkatesh Iyer 14; Yash Thakur 3-25, Darshan Nalkande 2-27, Aditya Thakare 1-19, Mohit Raut 1-8) beat Vidarbha 115 for 9 in 20 overs (Siddhesh Watt 26, Darshan Nalkande 21, Atharva Taide 15, Mohit Raut 12, Apoorv Wankhade 12, Yash Thakur 9 not out; Avesh Khan 5-17, Ankit Sharma 2-21, Mihir Hirwani 1-15) by 21 runs.