Ranji Trophy 2016-17: Anupam Sanklecha leaves Vidarbha in sixes and sevens

The Eden Gardens pitch was green and conditions assisted movement in the air. But credit to the Maharashtra medium pacer that unlike the majority of his Vidarbha counterparts, he didn’t get carried away. “We had a team meeting on match eve, where we discussed this. My coach and captain told me to keep it simple and play the patience game. I just did that,” Sanklecha revealed. Vidarbha batsmen didn’t have the technique and tenacity to frustrate the 34-year-old.

Vidarbha openers had offered promise on Monday with a 141-run opening partnership, but surviving the first session on Tuesday was key to their recovery. Faiz Fazal – he applied himself to remain unbeaten on 53 overnight – was their best bet. But the Vidarbha skipper couldn’t carry on this morning, playing with hard hands to a back of a length delivery and lobbing a catch to Swapnil Gugale at short leg. It was almost an action replay of his first innings dismissal. Fazal repeated his mistakes, his national team experience (in ODIs) notwithstanding.

Sanklecha didn’t mind. He saw an opening and ran through the opposition batting again. Shalabh Shrivastava and Jitesh Sharma had been accounted for with incoming deliveries that sneaked through the gate. Three wickets in five overs in his first spell took Maharashtra closer to victory, but Sanklecha had to come back for another spell to finish the job. He duly obliged, breaching the defence of Lalit Yadav, Akshay Wakhare and Ravikumar Thakur. The last of them hung on for a while as Shrikant Wagh chanced his arm at the other end, scored a half-century and tried his best to make Maharashtra bat again. But Thakur eventually played a poor shot and Sanklecha and his mates took off on a celebratory run.

Vidarbha lost nine wickets for 129 runs in 32.1 overs on Day Three. Sanklecha took six of them to finish with 7/69 – one wicket on Monday – in the second innings. He had 7/25 in the first dig. The other three wickets went to Nikit Dhumal (two) and Rahul Tripathi, but they were just the supporting cast in this game. Sanklecha took Maharashtra to their first win of the season.

Eden Gardens witnessed another two-and-a-half day finish in the Ranji Trophy this term – the fourth in a row. But no one complained about the pitch at India’s most storied cricket venue. The Vidarbha camp blamed their batting meltdowns. Maharashtra captain Kedar Jadhav advised other centres to emulate Eden, pitch-wise.

Brief scores: Vidarbha 59 and 270 (S Wagh 69*, F Fazal 59; A Sanklecha 7/69) lost to Maharashtra 332 by an innings and 3 runs

Points: Maharashtra 7, Vidarbha 0