Nalkande puts Vidarbha on top against Baroda

Nagpur, Nov 18 (PTI) Pacer Darshan Nalkande (4/7) struck four times to rock the Baroda top-order and put Vidarbha in the driver's seat on the third day of their Ranji Trophy Group A match here on Tuesday.

Set a target of 276, Baroda were tottering at 73 for five in their second innings when the stumps were drawn on the third evening.

With half their side back in the dressing room, it could be an extremely difficult task for the visiting side Baroda to get the remaining 203 runs and claim an outright victory on a challenging fourth day pitch at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium.

Following up his first-innings 40 not out, middle-order batter Yash Rathod proved to be the fulcrum around which the Vidarbha second innings revolved.

The 25-year-old Rathod worked hard to play what could prove to be a priceless knock of 91 off 142 balls.

His knock was studded with seven hits to the fence, and more importantly, he was involved in a vital partnership of 128 runs for the fourth wicket with Ravikumar Samarth, who chipped in with 45 off 129 balls.

This was after former Delhi batter Dhruv Shorey contributed 61 and Atharva Taide made 40 at the top of the order after the early departure of Aman Mokhade for a duck on the second day, leaving Vidarbha with plenty of ground to cover.

Skipper Atit Sheth was the most successful bowler for Baroda, finishing with fine figures of 5/47 in just under 16 overs.

Baroda's chase began on a disastrous note with Nalkande sending back the first four visiting batters to the dressing room with just 17 runs on the board.

Parth Rekhade then chipped in with the wicket of wicketkeeper Mitesh Patel to leave Baroda reeling at 55 for five.

At stumps, Sukirt Pandey and Ninad Rathva were batting on 35 and 10 respectively.

Earlier, Vidarbha began the third day's play from 126 for three with Rathod on 15 and Samarth on 8.

Brief scores: In Nagpur: Vidarbha 169 and and 272 all out in 98.2 overs (Yash Rathod 91, Dhruv Shorey 61; Atit Sheth 5/47) vs Baroda 166 and 73/5 in 32 overs (Sukirt Pandey batting 35; Darshan Nalkande 4/7).

In Coimbatore: Tamil Nadu 455 in 136.3 overs (Baba Indrajith 149, C Andre Siddarth 121, Guruswamy Ajitesh 86; Kunal Tyagi 2/51, Kartik Yadav 5/103) vs Uttar Pradesh 339 for 6 in 113 overs (Abhishek Goswami 79, Rinku Singh batting 98).

In Jamshedpur: Jharkhand 328 and 34 for 2 in 15 overs (Sharandeep Singh 115, Virat Singh 41, Sahil Raj 50; KV Sasikanth 4/67, Saurabh Kumar 4/77) vs Andhra 567 for 6 declared in 128 overs (Abhishek Reddy 247, Karan Shinde 94).

In Bhubaneswar: Odisha 275 and 350 for 5 declared in 71 overs (Swastik Samal 169, Subhranshu Senapati 137) vs Nagaland 161 and 41 for 1 in 18 overs. PTI AH AH PDS PDS