Carrying his bat, Atharva Taide scored an unbeaten century while Yash Rathod complemented him with 91 as Vidarbha finished at 280/5 by stumps on the opening day against Rest of India in the Irani Cup. Akash Deep and Manav Suthar shared five scalps between them on either side of the imposing 184-run partnership between Taide and Rathod, who told BCCI after the day’s play that they have forged alliances right through junior cricket.
Having won the toss, Vidarbha opted to bat first. Aman Mokhade blazed off the blocks with a slew of boundaries against Anshul Kamboj in particular before Akash Deep got the better of him. Taide was equally flamboyant at the other end before Dhruv Shorey launched off-spinner Saransh Jain for a six. Vidarbha appeared to be in a decent position at 80/1 before Manav Suthar turned the game on its head.
Suthar, bowling his first over of the innings, inflicted a double whammy to stun the Ranji champions. He first castled Shorey for 18 before sending Danish Malewar back to the pavilion for a three-ball duck. Under pressure to weather the storm, Taide joined forces with Rathod to embark on a rescue mission. The duo kept finding the boundaries at regular intervals to keep the scorecard ticking before Taide accomplished his fifty off 120 balls.
Rathod, who has been in sublime touch heading into this fixture on the back of his player of the match performance in the Duleep Trophy final, excelled again. He brought up his half-century off 103 balls and looked determined to make it count. The pair kept the Rest of India attack at bay for the better part of the day with Taide raising his ton in the process. However, right before the draw of stumps, Rathod slammed a six to prance into the nineties and got out the very next ball to miss out on a well-deserved ton. Deep then claimed the key wicket of Akshay Wadkar to make sure ROI ended the day on a positive note.
Brief scores: Vidarbha 280/5 (Atharva Taide 118*, Yash Rathod 91; Manav Suthar 3/64, Akash Deep 2/35) vs Rest of India
