Karun Nair ended Day 4 unbeaten on 132
After eking out a first-innings lead, Vidarbha drove home their advantage with a strong batting performance led by Karun Nair in the second innings. Nair’s unbeaten 132 ensured that they ended the penultimate day with a significant lead of 286 against Kerala.
Kerala had started the day in desperate need of quick wickets to get back the upper-hand, and for the first hour things went according to script for them. Jalaj Saxena struck with his first ball of the day getting through Parth Rekhade’s defence giving Kerala a boost early on, and it was followed up by another breakthrough next over when Dhruv Shorey nicked behind against Nidheesh. At 7 for 2, Vidarbha were in a spot of bother but had the in-form pair of Danish Malewar and Nair to resurrect the innings. The duo had put on a 215-run stand in the first innings and continued from where they left off this time around as well.