RANJI TROPHY FINAL 2017-18: Day 2- Fazal and Jaffer steady Vidarbha innings, as Gurbani 6-fer stops Delhi at 295

Rajneesh Gurbani ended up with figures of 6/59 in Ranji finals.

Faiz Fazal (67) and Wasim Jaffer (61*) were the heroes with the bat for Vidarbha

Second Day’s play of the ongoing Ranji Trophy 2017-18 finals has left the match between Delhi and Vidarbha at a very interesting point, with both teams on equal footing.

Dhruv Shorey’s majestic innings of 145, along with Himmat Singh’s 66 had given Delhi a hope of a score of over 330. However, Rajneesh Gurbani had other plans for the opposition, as he laid waste to the Delhi lower order, claiming a hat-trick in the process. He removed Vikas Mishra, Navdeep Saini and Dhruv Shorey to leave Delhi 5 runs short of the 300 run mark.

In the process, he also picked up 6 wickets for 59 runs, despite having some issues with fitness. Aditya Thakare picked 2/74, while S Neral and Akshay Wakhare accounted for one wicket each.

Delhi knew they needed to pick up quick wickets to put Vidarbha under pressure. But Vidarbha openers Faiz Fazal and Sanjay Ramaswamy had other ideas and both added 96 runs for the first wicket, before Akash Sudan accounted for Ramaswamy for 31 runs. Faiz Fazal scored a decently paced 67 runs before Sudan had him caught by Pant.

Ganesh Satish and veteran Wasim Jaffer got together to steady the innings, but Satish was out for 12, caught in front of the wickets by Saini. Jaffer and Apoorv Wankhade added 73 runs for the 4th wicket. They looked good to take Vidarbha to the end of the day without further damage, but Khejroliya removed Wankhade for 28 runs.

However, with Wasim Jaffer still on the crease with a calm 61* off 120 balls; Vidarbha can breathe easy as they know he will shepherd the lower middle order well as the team looks for a healthy lead over Delhi. Vidarbha ended the day on 206/4.

Akash Sudan was the pick of the bowlers with 2 wickets for 53 runs in 15 overs. Day three will determine for sure, which team will have the upper hand in the match, as some quick wickets will put Delhi in charge of the match, but with Jaffer, Vidarbha can dream of a lead of over 100 runs with the likes of Wakhare, Wadkar and Sarwate to support him.

BRIEF SCORES:
DELHI 295 (D SHOREY 145; R GURBANI 6/59) and VIDARBHA 206/4 (F FAZAL 67, W JAFFER 61*)
Vidarbha trail by 89 runs with 6 wickets remaining in the 1st innings

 
 

By Jatin Sharma - 30 Dec, 2017

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