Clinical Vidarbha set final date with Mumbai

Vidarbha registered a comfortable 62-run win over Madhya Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy semifinal at the Vidarbha Cricket Association ground in Nagpur on Wednesday (March 6). Needing another 93 more runs to win with four wickets in hand, Madhya Pradesh’s task was always going to be a tall order. The result was inevitable and Vidarbha ensured that the game was sealed inside the morning session itself. They will now face Mumbai, who in their 48th Ranji Trophy final appearance will target their 42nd title.

Aditya Thakare and Yash Thakur struck twice apiece, to clean up the Madhya Pradesh innings that crash landed on the fourth day after having started well. Yash Dubey’s 94 and his century stand with Harsh Gawli (67) had put the visitors well on track but once the partnership was broken, Madhya Pradesh lost the plot. Venkatesh Iyer and Saransh Jain did try to arrest the slide but neither batter was able to bat at a tempo that would trouble Vidarbha’s bowlers. Apart from Umesh Yadav, all the bowlers from the hosts’ attack picked up wickets.

Madhya Pradesh would rue letting slip a solid 82-run first innings lead that was built on the back of Himanshu Mantri’s gritty ton (126 off 265 balls). The opener’s efforts followed a strong showing from Madhya Pradesh’s bowlers in the first innings where Avesh Khan (4/49) led the show. Despite a sizeable deficit to contend with, Vidarbha didn’t panic in their second innings with the bat. Yash Rathod (141 off 200) produced a game-defining knock and added an impactful 158-run stand with Akshay Wadkar (77 off 139) to push the target into competitive levels.

A run chase of 300-plus on the last two days of a wearing surface in India is never easy. A long partnership can often be followed by a cluster of wickets and that is precisely what ensued for Madhya Pradesh as their middle order fell prey to the guile of Vidarbha’s probing attack.

Brief scores: Vidarbha 170 & 402 (Yash Rathod 141; Anubhav Agarwal 5-92) beat Madhya Pradesh 252 & 258 (Yash Dubey 94, Harsh Gawli 67; Akshay Wakhare 3-38, Yash Thakur 3-60) by 62 runs.