NEW DELHI:
Vidarbha
secured a comfortable 62-run victory over Madhya Pradesh in the
Ranji Trophy
semifinal at the
Vidarbha Cricket Association
ground in Nagpur on Wednesday.
Despite starting well, Madhya Pradesh faced a daunting task of scoring another 93 runs to win with only four wickets remaining. It was an uphill battle for them, and ultimately, Vidarbha sealed the game within the morning session.
In the final, Vidarbha will now face Mumbai, who will aim for their 42nd title in their 48th Ranji Trophy final appearance.
Aditya Thakare
and Yash Thakur played a crucial role in dismantling the Madhya Pradesh innings, taking two wickets each.
Yash Dubey's impressive knock of 94, along with a century partnership with Harsh Gawli (67), had put Madhya Pradesh in a strong position. However, once the partnership was broken, their batting lineup crumbled.
Venkatesh Iyer and Saransh Jain tried to stabilize the innings, but they failed to trouble Vidarbha's bowlers. Apart from
Umesh Yadav
, all the bowlers from the Vidarbha team contributed with wickets.
Madhya Pradesh will regret squandering an 82-run lead in the first innings, which was built on Himanshu Mantri's gritty century (126 off 265 balls). The bowlers from Madhya Pradesh also performed well in the first innings, with Avesh Khan leading the way with four wickets for 49.
Despite facing a significant deficit, Vidarbha remained composed in their second innings. Yash Rathod played a match-defining innings of 141, supported by
Akshay Wadkar
's valuable contribution of 77. Together, they pushed the target to a competitive level.
Chasing a target of over 300 runs on a deteriorating pitch in India is never easy. Madhya Pradesh experienced the familiar pattern of losing wickets in clusters after a promising partnership, as they struggled against Vidarbha's skillful bowling 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.
(With agencies inputs)
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