Vidarbha lift maiden Ranji Trophy
   Date :01-Dec-2020

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 Vidarbha players pose with the Ranji Trophy after defeating Delhi in final at Indore on January 1, 2018.
 
By Anupam Soni :
 
Convincingly beat Delhi by nine wickets inside four days for the coveted title
 
 
THE sweat and blood was finally rewarded. From ‘also ran’ for over six decades in domestic cricket, Vidarbha were deservedly crowned Ranji Trophy champions on first day of a new year. January 1, 2018 would be etched forever in the minds of all those who follow Vidarbha cricket as the team lifted the prestigious Ranji Trophy for the first time thumping Delhi by nine wickets. Nobody would have imagined Vidarbha winning Ranji Trophy when the tournament started...except for a bunch of young and experienced players being trained by a no-nonsense coach Chandrakant Pandit. Talent and skills were there but what Vidarbha players lacked was confidence in themselves. Pandit instilled that in abundance in them and with hard work put in by all — the players as well as the support staff and the facilities and free hand provided by Vidarbha Cricket Association, the squad, ably led by Faiz Fazal cornered glory.
 
After their thrilling five-run win over Karnataka in the semi-finals, Vidarbha were raring to go in the final. Faiz once again won the toss and invited Delhi to take first strike at Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore. Vidarbha straightway handed the cherry to debutant lanky right-arm seamer Aditya Thakare. The youngster did not disappoint and on his First-Class fourth ball dismissed Kunal Chandela for nought being caught by skipper in the slips. Soon offie Akshay Wakhare cleaned up Gautam Gambhir and when Thakare had Nitish Rana out lbw, Delhi were 65-3. Vidarbha’s hero with the ball in quarters and semi-finals, Rajneesh Gurbani had Delhi skipper Rishabh Pant caught by wicketkeeper Akshay Wadkar for first of his six victims. Dhruv Shorey (145), who was going great guns at the other end, added 105 runs with Himmat Singh (66). Gurbani-Wadkar saw the back of Singh and soon Siddhesh Neral sent Manan Sharma back. By end of Day 1, Delhi were 271-6.
 

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An indisposed Gurbani was admitted intravenous saline just before entering ground at start of the second day. Nobody knew that it was going to be a day that Gurbani will never forget in his life. In the 13th over of the morning and 101st of the innings, Gurbani hit the off stump with his banana inswinger to get rid of Vikas Mishra. The next ball was even better as a clueless Navdeep Saini heard the thud of ball hitting the stumps. These were the fifth and sixth balls of Gurbani’s 24th over. On first ball of his fresh over, the bowler duly completed (split) hat-trick in style castling a well-set Shorey. Kulwant Khejroliya’s stumps were also shattered in the same over as the batsmen went for a big heave. “I was feeling very weak (due to dehydration).
 

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More than anything else, I wanted to be in the pavilion to take rest,” said Gurbani remembering that morning when he had to remove the drip from his body. Faiz (67) and R Sanjay (31) gave the team a good start. Wasim Jaffer made 78 but the team lost some quick wickets and were 246-6. Then Wadkar (133; 262b, 16x4, 1x6), who batted for over seven hours, stitched important partnerships with the duo of Aditya Sarvate (79; 154b, 11x4) and Neral (74; 107b, 8x4, 4x6) to take the team to 547. Saini picked five wickets for Delhi. Vidarbha bowlers bowled well in tandem to bundle out the opponents for 280 in 76 overs in the second innings. Vidarbha needed just 29 runs during fag end of the fourth day. They raced to the target losing Faiz. Jaffer struck four fours in a Khejroliya over to complete the win as Sanjay came down from the other end to embrace his senior partner even as the entire team rushed to the field to celebrate the moment of glory. Prashant Vaidya, former India player and Chairman, Cricket Administration and Development Committee, VCA, who was instrumental in convincing Pandit to take Vidarbha reins termed the win as historic and glorious. “It’s a historic thing. We had individual talent but collectively we were like push overs...being champions from there on is personally a dream come true for me. It was a glorious moment for Vidarbha and had cascading effect. The performance of U-19 and U-23 squads improved after that. Winning is very important as it brings a lot of positivity and confidence,” said Vaidya recalling Vidarbha’s maiden triumph. There was no stopping the team in supreme form and confidence as they clinched their first-ever Irani Cup a month later. They made a grand double next season to prove that the earlier triumphs were no flash in the pan.
 

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Gurbani takes hat-trick for third MoM in a row KNOCK-OUTS of the season belonged to Rajneesh Gurbani. The right-arm seamer took 27 wickets at an average of 14.11 that was 12 more than any other bowler. He picked four five-wicket hauls in these games and was Man of the Match in each of these three matches. He took a hat-trick in the final and became only the second bowler after Tamil Nadu’s B Kalyanasundaram to do so in a Ranji final.