Vidarbha 105 and 248 for 5 (Nair 74, Wadkar 56*, Musheer 2-38, Kotian 2-56) need another 290 runs to beat Mumbai 224 and 418
Vidarbha’s slow and careful batting meant Mumbai had to work hard for their five wickets, all of which fell to spin. It was apparent early in the day that even though Vidarbha had conceded a first-innings lead – a decisive factor if the game ends in a draw – they did not want to lose outright, at least on the penultimate day of the final. Their batters attempted to play the long game, scoring only 238 runs in 90 overs on the day at a run rate of 2.64.
With the score at 133 for 4, and almost half the day’s play remaining, the onus was on Vidarbha’s two most experienced batters, Nair and Wadkar. Nair had walked out in the 20th over and played ultra defensively through the day. Against the spinners, he lunged forward often to defend, and also looked comfortable on the back foot.
The occasional unsuccessful reverse sweep aside, Nair reined in his shots all day. He also survived a few gloved defensive shots that went over the close-in fielders wearing the helmet and an lbw decision on umpire’s call. He was eventually out seven overs into the second new ball when Musheer got one to zip across and kiss Nair’s outside edge on the way to the wicketkeeper. Nair struck only three fours in his 240-ball innings.
Wadkar, on the other hand, displayed controlled aggression to finish on an unbeaten 91-ball 56 at stumps. He started his innings with two fours in his first six balls and played shots more on the merit of the deliveries. Wadkar used the depth of the crease well to pull through the leg side when the tired spinners landed balls short. After Nair fell, Wadkar reached his 18th first-class fifty in style by slapping Tushar Deshpande for six over backward point and ensured he would return on the final day alongside the No. 7 Harsh Dubey who showed glimpses of his aggressive style by smacking a six to long-on minutes before stumps.
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