Vidarbha reached 206 for four in their first innings after bowling out Delhi for 295 on the second day of their Ranji Trophy cricket final at the Holkar Stadium here on Saturday.
Medium pacer Rajneesh Gurbani’s devastating 6/59, including a hat-trick, floored Delhi, who managed to add only 24 runs to their overnight score of 271/6.
Then, Faiz Fazal (67) and Wasim Jaffer (61 not out) gave Vidarbha a strong position. The maiden finalists are now 65 runs behind Delhi.
In the morning, seven-time champions Delhi depended a lot on Dhruv Shorey (145), who was unbeaten on Friday evening at 123. He continued his good knock, keeping tail-ender Vikas Mishra (7) away from the strike for the first 10 overs.
But Gurbani struck twice in the final two deliveries of the 101st over, removing Vikas Mishra and Navdeep Saini (0), with Delhi at 290/8. He then ended Shorey’s innings in the first ball of the 103rd over, completing a hat-trick. It was only the second instance of a hat-trick in the final — the first being B. Kalyanasundaram of Tamil Nadu against Bombay in 1972/73.
The right-armer struck again in the same over, dismissing Kulwant Khejroliya (0) as the capital side was bowled out for 295. All of these batsmen suffered bowled dismissals.
In reply, Vidarbha got off to a perfect start, with captain Fazal and Sanjay Ramaswamy (31) putting up 96 runs for the opening wicket.
Seamer Akash Sudan’s delivery got an inside edge before crashing onto the stumps of Sanjay to give Delhi the much-needed breakthrough.
Fazal, too, soon perished, giving a regular catch to wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant off Akash, as Vidarbha lost their second wicket for 107/2. Fazal scored eight fours in his 32nd fifty.
Veteran Jaffer was going smoothly when Ganesh Sathish (12) after medium pacer Saini got a LBW verdict against the latter.
Former Mumbai captain and India opener Jaffer then joined hands with Apoorv Wankhade (28) to put up a partnership of 73 runs to take Vidarbha to the day-end total. Wankhade edged behind a delivery from Khejroliya late to give Delhi a feeling of sharing honours of the day.
Brief scores: Delhi: 295 all out in first innings (Dhruv Shorey 145; Rajneesh Gurbani 6/59) vs Vidarbha: 206/4 (Faiz Fazal 67, Wasim Jaffer 61 not out; Akash Sudan 2/53) on Day 2.