Vid concede title

 

 

VIDARBHA fell short of 75 runs to defend their title as they went down to Mumbai in final of the Col CK Nayudu Trophy that ended at Narendra Modi Stadium Ground A, Motera in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.

Having conceded a first innings lead, the only option left for the reigning champions was to go out for an outright win. The bowlers, once again led by left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey who picked his third seven-wicket haul of the tournament, bundled out Mumbai for a poor 113 in the second innings. Needing 197 in about two session with almost at a rate of four runs per over, Vidarbha batsmen faltered and were all out for 121 in 29.2 overs to concede the title.

Dubey, who has this knack of picking wickets in a heap, brought back Vidarbha in the game taking 7-55 as Mumbai managed just over hundred runs in the second innings. Vidarbha had enough overs to go for the kill but Dubey’s Mumbai counter-part Shams Mulani did exactly the same as the Vidarbha all-rounder. He also came up with a 7-wkt haul to stall Vidarbha progress.

This was Vidarbha’s tenth final in BCCI tournaments.

Starting the day, overnight unbeaten Mumbai openers were together for just 14 deliveries. Dubey struck the first blow removing Divyaansh for three. Soon, he struck twice in two balls to bring Mumbai down to 31-1 claiming the wickets of stumper Hardik Tamore and Armaan Jaffer. Parth Rekhade castled opener Bhupen Lalwani. Dubey then picked two more in succession and when offie Yash Kadam cleaned up Mulani, Mumbai were 61-7. Khizar Dafedar (29) and Maxwell Swaminathan (22) scored in twenties to add 43 runs for the ninth wicket taking the team past the three-figure mark.

Vidarbha had a poor start to the chase as both openers were back with six on the board at end of the third over. After Mohit Kale was out for eight, Vidarbha’s top run-getter of the tournament Yash Rathod (24; 43b, 2x4) and fellow southpaw Yash Kadam (49; 65b, 4x4) kept team in the hunt but former’s dismissal opened the floodgates as Mulani ran amok.