Madhya Pradesh Avesh Khan celebrates a wicket during the Ranji Trophy semifinal match against Vidarbha in Nagpur on March 2, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Avesh Khan-led Madhya Pradesh pace bowling unit hit right lengths on a pitch that offered enough carry to bowl out Vidarbha for a meagre 170 on day one to gain control of their Ranji Trophy semifinal match in Nagpur on March 2.
Avesh (4/49) was the pick of MP bowlers, while receiving good support from Kulwant Khejroliya (2/38) and Venkatesh Iyer (2/28).
Madhya Pradesh reached 47 for one in their first innings at close, and trail by 123 runs.
The VCA Stadium deck wore such fine green tinge as MP employed spin for just 2.4 overs in a total of 56.4 overs they bowled on the day.
Left-arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya, who dismissed last man Umesh Yadav, did the spinner’s duty for a brief period.
Other spinners in their ranks like offie Saransh Jain remained spectators of the proceedings.
Vidarbha’s feeble fight came through Karun Nair, who made 63 (105 balls, 9×4).
India pacer Avesh gave MP a fine start to the match when he uprooted the stumps of opener Dhruv Shorey (13).
Vidarbha lost wickets at regular intervals from that point and their biggest partnership was a 36 between Atharva Taide (39, 63b, 8×4) and Aman Mokhade (13, 75 balls) for the second wicket.
It came in almost 16 overs but the home side failed to capitalise on all the hard work.
Taide, who made a gritty hundred against Karnataka in the quarterfinals, snicked Iyer to stumper Himanshu Mantri who took a lovely tumbling catch behind the first slip.
It brought Karun, Vidarbha’s highest run-getter so far this season, to the middle and he played a fine innings filled with those typical drives and cuts.
But the right-hander did not find support from the other end as Avesh dismissed a stubborn Mokhade.
The hosts soon lost Yash Rathod, bowled by Iyer, and skipper Akshay Wadkar in the space of five runs to slip to 106 for five.
The catch Yash Dubey took at gully off pacer Khejroliya to oust Wadkar was a stunning one. He made a low-dive to his left to pouch a screamer as Wadkar tried to steer the ball from outside the off-stump.
Vidarbha’s hopes of reaching at least 200 was dashed when Karun dragged a Khejroliya delivery to his stumps while attempting a pull.
However, the Vidarbha bowlers were not as accurate as their MP counterparts as the visiting batters saw off the day without any alarm.
The lone jarring note was the dismissal of Dubey who feathered an edge off Umesh to Wadkar behind the stumps.