Visakhapatnam: Vidarbha skipper Faiz Fazal led by example to help his team gain a crucial first innings lead against Odisha in their Ranji Trophy Group B here today.
Fresh from India A's tour of Australia, the left-handed opener remained unbeaten on 76 (5x4, 1x6), even as Ganesh Satish departed in the fag end of the day for 74, ending their match-turning 158-run partnership. Vidarbha were 182 for two in reply to Odisha's 150, at close on day two.
Fazal remained unaffected and ensured that there's no further damage, even as his partner Aditya Shanware was yet to open his account from 19 balls.
Shanware had scored his only century (119) as an opener in his first class debut against the same team in Nagpur last season.
Resuming on 134 for six, Odisha lost their remaining four wickets in 49 balls as overnight batsman Biplab Samantray departed (53) in the first ball of the day.
Leftarm pacer Shrikant Wagh (3/13) triggered the collapse before offspinner Akshay Wakhare (3/19) cleaned the tail adding two more to his overnight's tally.
In reply, Vidarbha opening duo of Fazal and Sanjay Ramaswamy approached with caution but could not extend their partnership beyond 20 when Deepak Behera gave the breakthrough bowling out the latter for 13.
But the 31-year-old skipper Fazal, who made his ODI debut against Zimbabawe in June, was steady and ensured that there was no further damage in a match-building partnership with Satish.
Fazal brought up his 28th first-class half-century in 114 balls, while Satish was faster to reach to his 22nd fifty off 89 balls.
In the final session, Satish took an edge behind the stumps off Suryakant Pradhan as Odisha finally manage to break the partnership.
Brief Scores
Odisha 1st Innings 150; 78.1 overs (Biplab Samantray 53; Shrikant Wagh 3/13, Akshay Wakhare 3/19).
Vidarbha 1st Innings 182/2; 67 overs (Faiz Fazal 76 batting, Ganesh Satish 74 batting).
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