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Rest of India ended the penultimate day of the Irani Cup at 236/6. They came back well from 98/6 thanks to a brilliant partnership from Hanuma Vihari and Jayant Yadav.
Vidarbha began the day at 702/5 with Apoorv Wankhade and Aditya Sarwate at the crease.
The 26-year-old Wankhade reached his century early in the day and went on to add 50 for the 6th wicket before Sarwate was dismissed for 18 by Mayank Agarwal.
Wankhade was joined in the crease by Akshay Wakhare who was soon dismissed for a duck by Hanuma Vihari.
Rajneesh Gurbani then came in to join Wankhade at the crease. While Wankhade reached his highest score in first-class cricket, Gurbani chipped in with three fours and a six. VidThe duo added 56 for the 8th wicket as Vidarbha wrapped up their innings at 800/7 with Wankhade unbeaten at 157 from 221 deliveries while Gurbani scored 22 from 27 deliveries.
Vidarbha registered the highest total in the history of the Irani Cup, bettering ROI's 737 against Bengal at Chennai in 1990.
ROI began their innings poorly as they lost opener Ravikumar Samarth for a duck. Mayank Agarwal came in to join Prithvi Shaw at the crease but could not stay for long as he was dismissed by Umesh Yadav for just 11.
Prithvi Shaw tried to pull ROI up by playing some brilliant shots including a six. He reached his fifty before cutting an Aditya Thakare delivery towards gully where Apoorv Wankhade took the catch after fumbling a bit.
Rajneesh Gurbani then wreaked havoc in the ROI batting as he dismissed Karun Nair, Srikar Bharat and Ravichandran Ashwin in quick succession. ROI were now tottering at 98/6 when Jayant Yadav came in to join Hanuma Vihari at the crease.
Yadav and Vihari began playing calmly and patiently and began to build up a partnership to prolong ROI's innings. The duo played some brilliant shots as they reached to their respective fifties. They added 142 for the 7th wicket to keep ROI at 236/6 at the end of the day.
Rajneesh Gurbani was the pick of the Vidarbha bowlers with 4/46 while Umesh Yadav and Aditya Thakare picked up a wicket each.
Rest of India might have recovered well from a very delicate position but that doesn't deny the fact that Vidarbha are very much on the front foot as they still have a lead of 564 runs. It will take more than a Herculean effort from the remaining of the ROI batsmen to pile up that many runs in the final day.
Hence, it's safe to say that Vidarbha are just a day away from their first Irani Cup win.
