Vidarbha defeat Madhya Pradesh by 62 runs, to meet Mumbai in final

Nagpur: The pace bowling pair of Aditya Thakare and Yash Thakur battered the Madhya Pradesh tail as Vidarbha defeated their rivals by 62 runs to set up a Ranji Trophy title clash with Mumbai, here on Wednesday.

Madhya Pradesh, who were in a precarious position at stumps on day four at 228/6 requiring 93 more runs to win, withered in the face of hostile bowling from the duo who shared the spoils in the first session of the final day to earn Vidarbha a memorable semifinal win.

Madhya Pradesh were finally bundled out for 258 in 81.3 overs as their hopes of entering the final for the third time in the premier domestic tournament were dashed.

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

Chasing a target of 321 for victory, Madhya Pradesh, the 2021-22 Ranji champion, were still in the match despite losing six wickets, but 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.

Overnight batter Kumar Kartikeya, who had just taken guard when the stumps were called on Tuesday, fell for a duck, 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 for 8 and virtually extinguishing their chances of making it to the Ranji final for the third time.

Saransh Jain tried to keep the innings 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.

Vidarbha will take on 41-time champions Mumbai in the final from March 10.

Brief scores: Vidarbha 170 & 402 in 101.3 overs (Aman Mokhade 59, Yash Rathod 141, Akshay Wadkar 77; Anubhav Agarwal 5/92) beat Madhya Pradesh 252 and 258 in 81.3 overs (Yash Dubey 94, Harsh Gawali 67; Aditya Sarwate 2/56, Aditya Thakare 2/45, Yash Thakur 3/60, Akshay Wakhare 3/342) 62 runs.