Yash Thakur and Aditya Sarwate shone bright as Vidarbha moved into a commanding position against Karnataka after swelling their lead to 224 runs on the third day of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match in Nagpur on Sunday. (More Cricket News)
Left-arm spinner Sarwate (3/50) and pacer Thakur (3/48) shared six wickets equally among them as Karnataka were bundled out for 286 in their first innings after resuming from overnight 98 for two.
It helped the hosts take a huge innings lead of 174 runs and Vidarbha closed day three at 50 for no loss in their second innings with openers and first-innings centurion Atharva Taide (21) and Dhruv Shorey (29) manning the crease.
Karnataka had an arduous task of closing the gap with Vidarbha.
Their biggest hope for that was the presence of in-form veteran Manish Pandey and handy middle and lower-order batters like Hardik Raj, Sharath Srinivas and Vysakh Vijayakumar.
But Pandey, a hundred-maker in the last match against Chandigarh, perished in the first session itself for 15, getting castled by Thakur.
But vice-captain Nikin Jose (82, 212b, 11x4) and Hardik combined to milk 50 runs for the fourth wicket as Karnataka innings seemed to have got back on tracks.
However, the Thakur-Karun Nair combine spelt doom for Hardik as Karnataka lost their fifth wicket for 198.
There was another useful stand of 53 between Jose and Srinivas, another centurion from Karnataka last encounter, as it took them past 250.
But Sarwate elicited an edge from Srinivas which nestled in the big gloves of Akshay Wadkar.
At 251 for six, Karnataka did not have any genuine chance to overtake Vidarbha's first-innings total of 460 and Jose's dismissal on the team score of 286 was the end of their slender hopes.
Karnataka lost two more wickets on that score as veteran pacer Umesh Yadav upended the stumps of Vysakh and Vasuki Koushik to bring curtains on the visitors' innings.
Brief score: Vidarbha: 460 & 50 for no loss in 14 overs vs Karnataka: 286 all out in 90.3 overs (Nikin Jose 82, R Samarth 59; Yash Thakur 3/48, Aditya Sarwate 3/50).
