Half-centuries of Shorey and Malewar hold Mumbai at bay.

Dhruv Shorey and Danish Malewar both scored half-centuries to provide Vidarbha a solid foundation from which they might attempt to surpass 400 runs in the Ranji Trophy semi-final against Mumbai, the reigning champions, at Nagpur.
However, after four of the top five squandered starts to give Mumbai a little lead thanks to left-arm spinner Shams Mulani and all-rounder Shivam Dube, who both took two wickets, Vidarbha will also lament lost opportunities.
At stumps, skipper Akshay Wadkar was 13 not out and Vidarbha’s top scorer of the season, Yash Rathod, remained undefeated at 47. Following Vidarbha’s rapid loss of the set’s wickets to Karun Nair and Malewar, the two concluded the last hour of play.

Vidarbha will be quietly hopeful of scoring a large first innings total, something they failed to achieve in the Ranji Trophy final last year and consequently fell behind in the match, especially with bowling all-rounder Harsh Dubey, who struck two half-centuries in the quarter-final, yet to come.
In their sole game at the VCA Stadium this season—they played to a high-scoring tie against Gujarat in November of last year—Vidarbha chose to bat first thing in the morning. This one remained true for the most part, which is likely to make the early innings even more important for both teams, even if the surface at the old stadium has tended to be much livelier for the seamers.

Following the openers’ dismissal of Shardul Thakur and Mohit Avasthi’s first session, Atharva Taide was removed early. With a lifter that he gloved behind to wicketkeeper Akash Anand, Royston Dias, fresh off his first five-wicket haul in the quarterfinal, struck second ball. Despite his best efforts to defend, Taide made the fatal decision to drop his gloves and allow the ball to pass.

To make up for the early deficit, Shorey launched into a series of cover drives and fierce cuts. After Vidarbha chose to use an additional batter rather than an offspinner in Akshay Wakhare, he had a new No. 3 in Parth Rekhade, who was just playing in his second first-class match.

After Shorey and Malewar put up 51, Mulani had Shorey edge to Ajinkya Rahane off a deflection to slip for 74, his maiden wicket. As he had done in the quarterfinal match against Tamil Nadu, Nair entered the game at number five and worked his way through the innings alongside Malewar.

Nair, who had already amassed two hundreds in two games, countered Tanush Kotian’s spin danger by sweeping and reverse sweeping him, even as Malewar settled into a rhythm and reached his seventh first-class half-century. Particularly against the fast bowlers in the last session, Malewar’s selection of lengths and decision to play and leave deliveries were outstanding.