Vida rb ha lift maiden Ranji crown
Firsttime finalists crush Delhi by nine wickets to complete victory in four days
INDORE : Vidarbha crushed any feeble hopes Delhi had of a fightback, sealing a nine-wicket win witha day to spare to clinch their maiden Ranji Trophy title at Indore’s Holkar Stadium on Monday.
The contrast couldn’t have been more apparent between the un fancied winners and the seventime champions who were outplayed in all departments. For the second year, a new team was being crowned champion after Gujarat beat Mumbai in the final of the previous edition.
Delhi somehow managed to avert an innings defeat before being dismissed for 280 in their second innings, after Vidarbha’s first innings ended on 547, a lead of 252.
Vidarbha completed the formalities reaching 32/1 in just five overs to burst into celebrations on the pitch.
The Rishabh Pant-led Delhi were tamed by zestful spells from Akshay Wakhare and Rajneesh G ur ba ni. Delhi’ s seven Ranji Trophy wins are only behind Mumbai (41) and Karnataka (8), but in the end, they were battered and left wondering what different strategy they could’ve adopted.
Players and the support staff ran onto the field in joy as Wasim Jaffer pulled one to fine leg boundary to help the Faiz Fazalled side crush Delhi in the final session on the penultimate day.
Before giving themselves the wonderful New Year gift, Vidarbha’s best performance in the premier domestic tournament was in 2002–03 and 2011–12 when they reached the semi-finals of the Plate Group. They had qualified for the quarterfinals in 1970-71 and 1995–96.
Trailing by 252 runs, openers Kunal Chandela and Gautam Gambhir got Delhi off toa decent start in the second innings, putting on 32 runs, before Akshay Wakhare struck to get Chan del a, who had a good season (324 runs) except the 0 and 9 in the final.
Former India opener Gambhir, who had suffered a thumb injury while fielding on Sunday, looked in good touch, smashing seven fours in no time.
But Rajneesh Gurbani, who took a hat-trick in the Delhi first innings, trapped the former Delhi captain leg before for 36. However, Gambhir was a victim of poor umpiring as TV replays showed the ball was missing legstump.
The left-handed batsman finished the tournament as the highest run-getter for Delhi, with 683 run in nine games.
Dhruv Shore ya nd Ni tish Ran a also played positively and brought up their half-centuries. The intent of both batsmen was clear. They played attacking cricket and succeeded as that gave Delhi their only chance of any comeback.
Shorey, the first-innings centurion, looked set to get a big one until he edged one off left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate to wicket-keeper Akshay Wadkar. He scored 62 (10x4).
Rana fell in the final over before tea. A fuller delivery from Gurbani did the trick as the lefthanded batsman looked to drive through cover, instead edging straight to Wadkar.
The middle-order, led by Rishabh Pant, couldn’t contribute much as Delhi were bundled out for 280.
Off-break bowler Wakhare took four wickets while Gurbani and left-arm spinner Sarwate shared five wickets between them.
Resuming on Vidarbha’s overnight 528/7, Siddhesh Nera l got an early life when Kulwant Khejroliya overstepped in the 159 th over after beating the batsman with a slower delivery to bowl him.
N er al then scored four boundaries in no time before being dismissed by Navdeep Saini for 74 (8x4, 4x6).
Brief scores: Delhi: 295 and 280 all out in 2nd inngs (N Rana 64, D Shorey 62; A Wakhare 4/95, A Sarwate 3/30). Vidarbha: 547 all out in 1st inngs and 32/1 (Wasim Jaffer 17 not out; Kulwant Khejroliya 1/21) on Day 4.