Ranji Trophy final Day 1 | Saurashtra build on early pressure to restrict Vidarbha to 200/7

Vidarbha are the defending champions, and Saurashtra had reached the finals twice - losing both times to Mumbai in 2012-13 and 2015-16, both inside just three days. Such has been the divergent nature of the Ranji Trophy in the last one decade that it has put all the predictions out of the place and kept the tournament wide open until the last round of the ground stage came to an end. 

The opening day of the Ranji Trophy finals was no different either. Saurashtra started brilliantly, almost putting the hosts off and carried the momentum throughout, but the attritional play by the duo of Akshay Wadkar and Akshay Karnewar meant the team ended with a respectable opening day score of 200 runs with three wickets in hand.

The middle-order failed to deliver as the team reached 139/6 when the duo of Wadkar and Karnewar got together. Understanding the importance of forming a partnership, they applied a cautious approach and negated the spinning duo of Dharmendrasinh Jadeja and Kamlesh Makvana for 22 overs before Jadeja outfoxed Wadkar to give the visitors an important breakthrough. Vidarbha would be happy for their effort, but would sincerely hope that Akshay Wakhare would make a fine partnership with Karnewar in the first session tomorrow which in a way will determine the game.