Pacer Aditya Thakare's four-wicket burst had Tamil Nadu hanging on the ropes at 159 for six after the second day of their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match in Nagpur on Sunday.
Tamil Nadu have a long batting line-up but none of their top order batters showed gumption to fight out on a rather tricky surface.
The promising 18-year-old C Andre Siddharth, nephew of former Tamil Nadu batter Sridharan Sharath, played a lone hand with an impressive 65 off 89 balls (10x4, 2x6) but he did not have any support from the other end.
It was a major reason behind Tamil Nadu still trailing by a considerable 194 runs after allowing Vidarbha to post 353 in their first innings.
TN's batting, much against what they did in the league stages, was in shambles this day as star batters like Narayan Jagadeesan (22), Vijay Shankar (22) and B Sai Sudharsan (7) all failed to chip in with anything substantial.
Sudharsan will be particularly disappointed as this was his first outing since playing against Australia A for India A in November, 2024.
Since then, the left-handed batter was recuperating from a sports hernia surgery that he underwent in London in December last year.
At one stage, TN were 38 for four but Shankar and Siddharth added 95 runs to give them some hope, but the former edged Thakare to stumper Akshay Wadkar.
Now, TN will hope that veterans Pradosh Ranjan Paul (18 batting) and skipper R Sai Kishore (6 batting) will bail them out on Day 3.
The Tamil Nadu batters can take a leaf out of the fight shown by Vidarbha batters, led by Karun Nair, who extended his overnight 100 to 122.
But the real star in their batting was Harsh Dubey (69, 132 balls, 9x4) who batted in the company of tail lenders to take Vidarbha, overnight 264 for six, to a 350-plus total.
Brief scores: Vidarbha: 353 all out in 121.1 overs (Karun Nair 122, Harsh Dubey 69, Danish Malewar 79; Sonu Yadav 3/91, Vijay Shankar 3/75) vs Tamil Nadu: 159/6 in 46 overs (C Andre Siddharth 65; Aditya Thakare 4/18).
Auqib Nabi's five-for put J&K in top against Kerala
Seamer Auqib Nabi complemented his useful contribution with the bat with an excellent five-wicket haul to put Jammu and Kashmir in the driver's seat against Kerala on the second day of their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal in Pune.
Responding to J&K's first innings total of 280 all out, Kerala were struggling at 200 for nine at stumps, trailing by a good 80 runs with just one wicket in hand.
J&K, who resumed the day on overnight 228 for eight, did well to add another 52 runs to their total thanks to Nabi's useful 30-ball 32 and Umar Nazir Mir's 14 not out.
Four of Nabi's victims were recognised batters in the Kerala top and middle order, making his effort very special. The 28-year-old Nabi ended the day with fine figures of 5/36 from 19 overs, his eighth five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.
The seasoned Jalaj Saxena top-scored for Kerala with a 67-run knock off 78 balls, while Salman Nizar was unbeaten on 49 when the stumps were drawn for the day.
While Saxena struck six fours and three sixes during his stay in the middle, Nizar found the fence eight times in his 75-ball knock.
Down in the batting the order, pacer MD Nidheesh chipped in with 30 off 36 balls before being dismissed by Sahil Lotra.
Nidheesh, who opened the bowling for Kerala, was also the most successful bowler for his side and returned with impressive figures of 6/75 in 27 overs.
Aditya Sarwate, who is also an outstation player like Saxena, picked up 2/34 as J&K were bowled out in 95.1 overs.
As far as the J&K bowling is concerned, there were two wickets apiece for Yudhvir Singh (2/61) and Sahil Lotra (2/9).
What hurt Kerala most was that the side, barring the 94-run stand between Saxena and Nizar, did not have much luck with partnerships.
Brief scores:
Jammu and Kashmir 1st innings: 280 all out in 95.1 overs (Kanhaiya Wadhawan 48, Lone Nasir 44; MD Nidheesh 6/75)
Kerala 1st innings: 200/9 in 63 overs (Jalaj Saxena 67, Salman Nizar batting 49; Auqib Nabi 5/36).
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