Vidarbha batters and bowlers are in good form. Their teamwork gave them outright victories in the first two matches. Left-handed opening batsmen Atharva Taide has scored 148 runs in two matches including one century against Andhra Pradesh. Yash Rathod (123) who too has one century under his belt is batting well. However, big knock is expected from professionals Dhruv Shorey and Karun Nair. Among the bowlers, left arm spinner Harsh Dubey is among the top three bowlers in the country. He has taken 15 wickets in two matches. His spin partner Akshay Wakhare who will be playing his 100th First Class match has claimed nine whereas speedster Aditya Thakare got eight in two matches. All in all everything is going in Vidarbha's favour.
On the other hand, Uttarakhand after losing the tournament opener against Himachal Pradesh by and innings and 79 runs bounced back to beat Hyderabad by 78 runs. Therefore, they would also like to carry the momentum on the home ground.
Teams (from)
Vidarbha: Akshay Wadkar, Atharva Taide, Aman Mokhade, Yash Rathod, Harsh Dubey, Akshay Karnewar, Yash Kadam, Akshay Wakhare, Aditya Thakare, Shubham Kapse, Nachiket Bhute, Siddhesh Wath, Praful Hinge, Danish Malewar, Parth Rekhade, Karun Nair and Dhruv Shorey.
Uttarakhand: Aditya Tare , Ravikumar Samarth, Swapnil Singh, Kunal Chandela, Vaibhav Bhatt, Deepak Dhapola, Mayank Mishra, Abhay Negi, Avneesh Sudha, Himanshu Bisht, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Akash Madhwal, Ankit Manor, Akhil Rawat, Devendra Singh Bora.
Wakhare playing 100th FC match
When experienced offie Akshay Wakhare will enter the field, he will thus become the fourth Vidarbha cricketer to play 100 First Class matches after Faiz Fazal (138), Umesh Yadav (124, including Test matches) and Pritam Gandhe (100). Wakhare, who made his Vidarbha debut in 2006 against Kerala at Palakkad under the leadership of Harshal Shitoot, has so far played 86 Ranji trophy, 11 Duleep Trophy and two Irani Cup matches, taking his First Class tally to 99. With 326 First Class wickets under his belt,Wakhare so far has taken 21 five-wicket hauls. On three occasions he has taken 10 wickets in a match.