11, 2026. (PTI Photo) (PTI10_11_2026_000262A) Nagpur: Vidarbha’s captain Akshay Wadkar and Yash Rathod run between the wickets during the Ranji Trophy Group A cricket match between Vidarbha and Puducherry, in Nagpur, Sunday, Oct.
Semifinal against Madhya Pradesh in 2024, league match against Mumbai in 2025, and now the season opener against Pondicherry, captain Wadkar and his deputy Rathod have time and again bailed out Vidarbha from precarious situations. Nagpur: The list of rescue acts enacted by Messrs Yash Rathod and Akshay Wadkar keeps growing each Ranji Trophy season.
From 0 for 2 to 54 for 5, things went downhill for Vidarbha inside 20.3 overs. Rathod (131;167b;11×4;1×6) and Wadkar (112;225b; 13×4) scored unbeaten centuries to take the former champions to 300 by the end of Day 1 of the Elite Group ‘A’ match. The stage was set for another saviour act, and the duo didn’t disappoint.
The southpaw began on an attacking note, scoring at almost a run a ball, to unsettle the Pondicherry bowlers, who earlier looked at their best. At Jamtha Stadium on Sunday, Vidarbha’s plan of ‘bat once, bat big’ was going wrong big time in the morning session. Rathod, fresh from his match-saving exploits for India ‘A’, played another responsible knock on Sunday.
Wadkar, the unassuming architect of many a Vidarbha triumph, scripted his team’s comeback in the company of Rathod. He wrecked the Pondicherry bowlers’ lengths with his characteristic walking down the wicket trigger movement. Sunday’s fighting knock produced the 12th first-class century for Wadkar. It also laid the foundation for a big Vidarbha total.