Uttar Pradesh draw with Vidarbha

Vidarbha drew with Uttar Pradesh on Thursday at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur, in the Vijay Merchant (under-16) Central Zone league match. UP middle order batsman A Alam with a fine knock of 109 and Vidarbha bowler Sohil Bhengade with 5/35 shared the honours.

Electing to bat, Vidarbha got off to a bad start losing their first wicket in the first over of the match, with captain Ali Akbar out for a duck. That was followed by a retrieving stand of 108 for the second wicket between Faiz Fazal (52) and Pushkar Menghal (50). From a relatively strong position of 109/1, the Vidarbha innings collapsed and came to an end on 149 in 70.2 overs. Devendra Singh (Jnr) was the pick of bowlers with figures of 9.2-3-36-3.

UP were struggling at 24/2 when T Abbas and A Alam got together. They put on a partnership of 122 for the third wicket. Abbas was dismissed for 68 made in 96 balls and included 11 fours. Captain R Elahi joined Alam and kept the momentum going with a partnership of 91 for the fourth wicket as Alam was dismissed reducing UP to 237/4. Alam's innings lasted 232 minutes and he got his runs off 180 balls. Alam was severe on the bowlers, smashing 15 boundaries. The UP innings folded up with the dismissal of Alam though captain Elahi made 62. Sohil Bhengade did most of the damage capturing five of the last six batsmen to fall. UP finished at 286 all out in 90.1 overs.

Vidarbha in their second innings made a splendid start with openers Ali Akbar and Faiz Fazal putting on 115 runs. Ali Akbar made 71 of those runs, striking 10 fours. Faiz Fazal went on to score a patient 84 (8 fours) in 229 balls. Devendra Singh ripped apart the batting, picking up 4/49 as Vidarbha's second innings came to an end at 238 in 101 overs. The UP chase was never on as there was little time left in the match. By the close, UP were 70/0 in 12 overs. UP took home five points and Vidarbha had to remain content with three.