Indore: Vidarbha claimed their maiden Ranji Trophy title after beating Delhi by nine wickets in the final of the Ranji Trophy here, Monday. Chasing a target of 29, Vidarbha completed the task with loss of skipper Faiz Fazal’s wicket.
Opting to field, Vidarbha bowled out Delhi for 295 in the first innings. In reply, Vidarbha notched up a mammoth 547 all out.
In their second innings, Delhi were all out for 280 with Shorey (62, 142b, 10×4) and Nitish Rana (64, 113b, 12×4) scoring half centuries. Vidarbha chased down the 29-run target with a day to spare at the Holkar Stadium.
Overnight 528 for seven with wicketkeeper Wadkar unbeaten on 133, Delhi quickly picked up the remaining three wickets in the morning. Young pacer Navdeep Saini (5/135) was the most successful bowler for Delhi.
Trailing by 252 runs, Delhi lost opener Kunal Chandela with just 32 runs on the board. And a bigger blow was dealt on the seven-time winners when their most experienced campaigner, Gautam Gambhir (36, 37b, 7×4), in what looked like a debatable decision, was adjudged lbw off Gurbani (2/92) to a ball that seemed to be heading down the leg side.
First-innings centurion Shorey and Rana then stitched together 110 runs for the third wicket. However, Delhi lost Shorey to the left-arm spin of Aditya Sarwate (3/30) in 164.
Rana followed suit as he nicked the impressive Gurbani to Wadkar behind the stumps. Himmat Singh was bowled by off-spinner Akshay Wakhare (4/95) before he could open his account. And then came a reckless shot by skipper Rishabh Pant (32, 36b, 3×4, 1×6), an attempted heave off Siddhesh Neral (1/39) leading to his dismissal as Delhi ran out of batting options.
Brief scores
Delhi 295 & 280 (Nitish Rana 64, Dhruv Shorey 62; Akshay Wakhare 4/95, Aditya Sarwate 3/30) lost to Vidarbha 547 (Navdeep Saini 5/135) & 32/1 by nine wickets.
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