Atharva Taide's century leads Vidarbha to Vijay Hazare Trophy triumph

Bengaluru, Jan 18 (PTI) Atharva Taide’s hundred of rare brilliance in alliance with a disciplined bowling effort powered Vidarbha to a facile 38-run win over Saurashtra and to their maiden Vijay Hazare Trophy title here on Sunday.

Once Vidarbha made a daunting 317 for eight riding on Taide’s 128 (118 balls, 15x4, 3x6), the task was cut out for Saurashtra and they failed to cross the line, ending up at 279 all out in 48.5 overs.

But Saurashtra fought gamely for a large part despite slipping to 30 for two early, which soon became a discomforting 112 for four in 22.4 overs.

The heartbeat of Saurashtra’s fight was determined fifties by Prerak Mankad (88, 92 balls) and Chirag Jani (64, 63 balls) and their 93-run fifth wicket stand.

Their venture was built more on common sense rather than flourish, and they were also helped to a good extent by Vidarbha’s sloppy fielding.

There were a couple of grassed catches and numerous misfields from Vidarbha fielders in the middle overs.

Mankad was given a life on 70 off Harsh Dubey at mid-wicket and Jani was dropped on 14 off Parth Rekhade at long-on, which helped Saurashtra drag the match much longer than it was expected.

But eventually, the flickering flame was snuffed out with Mankad’s dismissal. The right-hander rocked back to cut left-arm spinner Dubey (1/59) but missed the line to get caught plumb in front of the wicket.

Pacer Darshan Nalkande soon ousted Jani, whose ill-timed swipe found Aman Mokhade near sweeper cover. Pacers Yash Thakur (4/50) and Nachiket Bhute (3/46) then mopped up the later order to cap Vidarbha’s memorable night which celebrated with flair and gusto.

But before the bowlers joined the act, Taide played a textbook one-day innings to take Vidarbha to a competitive total.

Taide does not have the proverbial left-hander’s grace but the steel in his batting makes him a tough customer to bowl at.

As the shadows over the BCCI Centre of Excellence began to lengthen, Taide bled Saurashtra silently using angles and spaces around the field well.

There were a couple of lovely drives through the covers and beefy sixes over mid-wicket, but the 25-year-old never found himself in a corner even when Saurashtra bowlers, particularly pacer Chetan Sakariya, tightened the lines because of his ability to find gaps easily for singles and twos.

Perfect pacing was the other significant feature of his innings. Once he reached fifty off 66 balls (7x4), Taide shifted the gears dramatically.

His next 50 runs came in just 31 balls, and they contained five fours and two sixes. It was his third List A hundred.

In that phase, Taide combined with an equally effervescent Yash Rathod (54, 61 balls) to add 133 runs for the second wicket in 18 overs, as Vidarbha chugged along in excess of six runs an over.

Taide was also involved in an 80-run opening wicket alliance with Aman Mokhade (33), who finally had a relatively modest outing in this tournament.

Vidarbha were 213 for two when Taide departed and they needed a few more runs to be on safe shores.

Their middle and late order batters chipped in with little yet handy contributions to take Vidarbha past the 300-run mark, which proved enough on the night. PTI UNG PDS PDS