Ranji Trophy | Aditya Sarwate all-round special takes Vidarbha to cusp of defending title

Brief scores: Vidarbha 312 & 200 (Aditya Sarwate 49, Mohit Kale 38; Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 6-96, Kamlesh Makvana 2/51) lead Saurashtra 307 & 58/5 (Vishvaraj Jadeja 23*, Snell Patel 12; Aditya Sarwate 3-13, Akshay Wakhare 1/18) by 148 runs

It is a match befitting of a final as the fortunes swung rapidly in both the directions to give the last clash of the premier domestic competition of the country a cutting edge. After dominating Vidarbha on the third day, the visitors threw away the initiative thanks to one man, Aditya Sarwate. 

The most important delivery of the match was bowled when Sarwate went back on his run-up to bowl the last delivery of the 9th over. The delivery landed on middle and off as Cheteshwar Pujara leaned forward to play it for turn but there was none. He was trapped plumb in front for a five-ball duck - only the third time in his Ranji Trophy career - to put Saurashtra’s hopes to rest. 

Before that delivery was even bowled, Snell Patel and Harvik Desai had been dismissed by Sarwate. He was just adding to the first-innings fifer and was understandably joyous in his approach. To compound Sarwate’s effort, Umesh Yadav and Akshay Wakhare bowled with purpose and dismissed Arpit Vasavada and Sheldon Jackson to give Vidarbha the honours of the day.

If that was not going to make you applaud Sarwate’s brilliance in the final, then the bowler was there to surprise you with more contributions. In Vidarbha’s second innings, the unassuming character added 66 runs with the final three partnerships of the innings before being the last man dismissed for 49. He might have fallen short of one run to complete his half-century, but in the meantime, he had already become the highest run-scorer in the innings.