Rathod, Wakhare make Vidarbha favourites going into fifth day

With a place in the Ranji Trophy final at stake, Madhya Pradesh slipped from a comfortable position of 128 for 1 to find themselves still 93 runs away from Vidarbha's target of 321. But with only four MP wickets left to take, it is Vidarbha who are favourites going into the fifth day in Nagpur.

The day belonged to Vidarbha barring a 106-run second-wicket partnership between Yash Dubey (94) and Harsh Gawli (67) that gave MP a solid start towards the target. Right-arm pacer Yash Thakur broke the stand in the afternoon by dismissing Gawli, after which the spin pair of Akshay Wakhare and Aditya Sarwate got crucial breakthroughs.

Wakhare accounted for both Sagar Solanki and Shubham Sharma for low scores, and then dismissed Venkatesh Iyer for 19. After getting the wicket of MP opener Himanshu Mantri in the first session, Sarwate returned late in the day to get the other opener Dubey, six short of a fourth-innings century.

In all, MP lost five wickets for only 99 runs in the space of 30.2 overs, before stumps were called with No. 7 Saransh Jain (16*) having No. 8 Kumar Kartikeya (0*) in the middle.

In the morning, Vidarbha finished on 402 after adding 59 runs to their overnight score of 343 for 6. Yash Rathod, who started the day unbeaten on 97, scored the bulk of the runs with the lower order to finish on 141. Batting at No. 6, he hit 18 fours and two sixes.

His maiden first-class century and Akshay Wadkar's 77 on the third day helped Vidarbha finish their innings 320 ahead. It was a solid turnaround after they conceded an 82-run first-innings lead. MP's medium-pacer Anubhav Agarwal ran through Vidarbha's tail to claim 5 for 92.