Vidarbha lost six wickets for 36 runs, as they ceded the early advantage to Madhya Pradesh

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Mar-2024Avesh Khan’s four-wicket haul helped Madhya Pradesh dominate the first day of the Ranji Trophy semi-final against Vidarbha in Nagpur. After being asked to bowl, the MP quicks ran through Vidarbha to bowl them out for 170. MP ended the day at 47 for 1, trailing by 123 runs.Avesh made early inroads by cleaning up opener Dhruv Shorey for a 12-ball 13 in the seventh over. Atharva Taide, Shorey’s opening partner, got off to a decent start hitting eight boundaries in his 63-ball stay. But his stay was short-lived after he nicked one to the wicketkeeper off Venkatesh Iyer’s medium pace for 39, in the 22nd over. Aman Mokhade survived 75 deliveries but fell to Avesh six overs later.Vidarbha then suffered a collapse, going from 101 for 2 to 137 for 8, losing six wickets for just 36 runs. Overall, MP pacers accounted for nine of the ten wickets on Saturday with Kulwant Kehjroliya and Iyer scalping two each while Anubhav Agarwal took one. Karun Nair’s resistance fetched him 63 off 105 balls, during which he hit nine fours. His 33-run ninth-wicket stand with Umesh Yadav (0) helped Vidarbha move past 150 but the team survived only 56.3 overs with left-arm spinner Kumar Karthikeya picking up the final wicket to restrict Vidarbha to a below-par score.With the bat, MP lost opener Yash Dubey early, who was caught behind for a 22-ball 11 off Umesh’s pace. At stumps, wicketkeeper Himanshu Mantri and Harsh Gawli remained unbeaten on 26 and 10 respectively to put MP in a strong position heading into day two.