Ranji Trophy: Vidarbha beat Madhya Pradesh by 62 runs in thriller, to face Mumbai in final

Vidarbha came through a humdinger to beat Madhya Pradesh by 62 runs in the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy on Wednesday. They will play Mumbai in the final which gets underway on Sunday. Mumbai had beaten Tamil Nadu in their semi-final by an innings and 70 runs on Monday.

This is Vidarbha’s third entry into the Ranji Trophy final, and on both the occasions they’ve won the title, defeating Delhi (2017-18) and Saurashtra (2018-19) respectively.

Chasing 321 runs to win, Madhya Pradesh were dismissed for 258 runs as the match entered the final day on the knife’s edge. MP needed 93 runs to win and Vidarbha chased four wickets. Yash Dubey’s 94 run stand kept MP in the competition but his wicket in the latter stages of Day 4 shifted the contest.

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Madhya Pradesh resumed from overnight’s 228/6 with Saransh Jain and Kumar Kartikeya occupying the crease. They could only add 30 runs before being dismissed an hour into the day’s play with all four wickets falling without much resistance.

Timber Strikes 🔥

Vidarbha wrapped it up early today, picking up the remaining 4️⃣ wickets to enter the final. 👌@IDFCFIRSTBank | #VIDvMP | #RanjiTrophy | #SF1

Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/KsLiJPuYMZ pic.twitter.com/ny6DYBQ7bM

— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) March 6, 2024

Kartikeya was the first to fall for a duck with Anubhav Agarwal also not adding to the score. Saransh Jain was dismissed for 25 runs before Kulwant Khejroliya became the last to fall.

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Dubey’s 94 and Harsh Gawli’s 67 runs were the valiant knocks in MP’s chase but it was shut down by Vidarbha’s bowlers. Akshay Wakhare and Yash Thakur took three wickets each while Aditya Sarwate and Aditya Thakare took two wickets each.

Thakare and Thakur were on song on the final day, with the early morning freshness of the wicket helping them extract a fair bit of bounce and movement.

Kartikeya, who had just taken guard when the stumps were called on Tuesday, was cleaned up by Thakare after facing just four balls.

Anubhav Agarwal was the next to depart, clean bowled for a duck by Thakare, leaving MP tottering at 234/8 and virtually extinguishing their chances of making it to the Ranji final for the third time.

Saransh Jain tried to keep the chase alive but could add just nine runs to his overnight score of 16 before Yash Thakur sent his stumps flying to bring more joy to the Vidarbha camp.

Kulwant Khejroliya too went cheaply to signal celebrations in the Akshay Wadkar-led side.