WITH a thumping innings and 259 runs win over minnows Meghalaya in their last league assignment, runners-up of last edition Vidarbha have booked a quarter-final berth in the BCCI-organised Col CK Nayudu Trophy cricket tournament at VCA’s Civil Lines ground in Nagpur on Tuesday. The visitors made 126 and 157 in their innings while the hosts had declared their first innings at 542-2. Starting the third day at 18-4, Meghalaya batters did pretty well to bat a total of 74 overs.

Vidarbha’s left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey (35-11-62-6) and skipper offie Yash Kadam (21-8-40-3), who did the bulk of bowling, shared all the wickets. This was second five-wicket haul of the match for Dubey who ended with match figures of 11-99. The victory catapulted Vidarbha to top of Group E with 29 points and they have qualified directly for the quarters as they have more number of bonus-point wins (2) than anybody else in the group.

Either Karnataka or Baroda will also end up with same number of points but they do not have two bonus-point victories. For the records, Vidarbha had beaten Baroda by 61 runs in the lung opener at GSFC Cricket ground, Vadodara. Against Karnataka, in a high scoring game at VCA Kalamna ground, Vidarbha made 619-9 decl and then bowled out the visitors for 559 for a first innings lead. Vidarbha will play their quarter-final most probably against Mumbai in Mumbai from February 26. That will be a repeat of the last year’s final and will present Vidarbha a chance to settle scores.