A month ago, Mumbai was bested by Vidarbha in the U-19 Cooch Behar Trophy semi-final at Nagpur. With the Mumbai team facing a defeat against their Maha derby in the U-19 category, the two teams have once again come against each other. On March 2, Monday, it was Vidarbha's turn to torment Mumbai at the U-23 level, on the opening day of CK Nayudu Trophy semi-final at the Wankhede Stadium.
The hosts were easily dominated by Vidarbha at the proceedings after its bowling attack dismissed the Mumbai U-23 team for a paltry 94. In reply, Vidarbha sustained to see another day with 111 for six at stumps.
The poor batting performance by Mumbai comes after in the last encounter the Hardik Tamore-led team thrashed Puducherry by an innings and 231 runs. Mumbai won at the same ground last week in the quarter-final encounter. The decision to bat first on Monday backfired for the Mumbai boys as the hosts' top three batsmen were in the dressing room with just seven runs on the board by the eighth over.
Other than Sarfaraz Khan (40), Agni Chopra and Minad Manjrekar (12 each), no other batsman was able to breach the double-figure score. Parting Khan, no Mumbai player stood a chance against the fiery Vidarbha pacers, Nachiket Bhute (4-26), Aditya Thakare (3-13) and Dushyant Tekan (3-37). The pacer credited his team's success to Chandrakant Pandit, who is currently coaching Vidarbha's Ranji Trophy team.
"Our off-season training was very good, though very tough. We had four different sessions [fielding, skills, indoor practice and gym] for all teams from U-14 to the senior one, from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm at Vidarbha Cricket Association's Civil Lines ground. Chandu sir monitored everyone's progress. He pointed out the positives and negatives to all of us," Bhute told Mid-Day. The youngster has claimed 18 wickets in six games so far.
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