Ranji Trophy: Faiz Fazal, Wasim Jaffer steer Vidarbha to three-wicket win over Assam

Nagpur: Faiz Fazal (63) and Wasim Jaffer (71) shared an 124-run opening partnership to steer Vidarbha to a three-wicket victory over Assam on the fourth and final day of their Group A Ranji Trophy cricket match at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium here on Sunday.

Chasing 213 to win, Vidarbha resumed their second innings at 88 for no loss as Fazal and Jaffer continued their good work and notched up their individual half-centuries.

Syed Mohammad dismissed Jaffer in the 44th over, while Amit Verma removed Fazal at the 150-mark in the 57th over. Jaffer had eight boundaries in his 119-ball innings, while Fazal hit just three fours during his stay.

Ganesh Satish (17) and skipper S Badrinath (37) then took Vidarbha to the 200-mark but S Purkayastha then came up with twin strikes to dismiss both the batsmen in the 70th over.

Just 13 runs off the target, Vidarbha then suffered a mini-collapse as they lost Badrinath, Shalabh Shrivastava (0), Jitesh Sharma (4) and Aditya Shanware (1) in the next four overs.

SS Ruikar (4) and UT Yadav (6) then took the team home and helped Vidarbha grab six points.

Brief Score:

Assam 206 & 160

Vidarbha 154 & 215/7 in 74 overs (W Jaffer 71; Amit Verma 3/55, S Purkayastha 3/90).