Rajasthan v Vidarbha (Cooch Behar, Central Zone)

O P Sharma, CricInfo
11-13 November 1998

Rajasthan's captain Anup Dave and debutant Surendra Sharma bowled magnificently and bundled out Vidarbha for 153 runs in their first innings. In reply at stumps on the first day Rajasthan were 52 for 1. The lone wicket to fall was Vivek Sharma, lbw to Umesh Patil for 9 runs, the wicket falling at 23. Vinit Saxena and Chauhan were at unbeaten on 20 and 10 respectively.

Earlier Vidarbha's captain won the toss and opted to bat. The Vidarbha innings closed just before tea. They lost 7 wickets in the space of 96 runs.

Day 3 Report

Rajasthan beat Vidarbha by seven wickets, with three overs to go on the final day, to keep their hopes alive to enter the knock-out round of the Cooch Behar Trophy.

Earlier resuming from 80 for 4, Vidarbha were all out for 194, just before tea, in their second innings. This set Rajasthan a victory target of 94 runs in 31 overs (including the 15 mandatory overs). Rajasthan lost three wickets but thanks to Ahsan Ali (28*) and Vijesh Bhatnagar (22*), Rajashthan scampered home. The pair put on 50 runs in an unbroken fourth-wicket partnership (in 96 balls and 59 minutes) to steer Rajasthan to victory.

Rajasthan's fate now depends on the outcome of the Railways v Uttar Pradesh match, to enter the knock-out phase of the competition. If Railways win the match (even on 1st innings basis), then Rajasthan will be out of the competition. Messrs. Satish Gupta (Uttar Pradesh) and Rajiv Risodkar stood as umpires for this match.