Vidarbha 379 (Malewar 153, Nair 86, Nidheesh 3-61) and 375 for 9 dec (Nair 135, Malewar 73, Sarwate 4-96) drew with Kerala 342 (Baby 98, Sarwate 79, Nalkande 3-52)
Vidarbha put the ghosts of 2023-24 to bed in the most emphatic manner possible - snatching a thrilling battle for the first-innings lead in style - and then grinding Kerala down for nearly five sessions in the second innings to be crowned Ranji Trophy champions for the third time. It made it all the more special that they achieved this feat in front of nearly 3000 home fans who had trooped into the VCA Stadium in Nagpur on a Sunday afternoon, and saw
Akshay Wadkar's team lift the trophy.
A heartbroken Kerala squad were left to rue what could've been. Would things have been different had
Sachin Baby middled his slog sweep on 98 with a lead within touching distance? What if Akshay Chandran had taken second-innings centurion
Karun Nair's catch early on day four? What if DRS had not reprieved half-centurion
Danish Malewar after Vidarbha had lost two early wickets?
There were several such moments Kerala could look back on. All told, they would be richer with the experience of playing in their first final. That their coach Amay Khurasiya walked all the way to the center and took a fistful of a crumbly top surface of the Jamtha deck for posterity told you how much it meant to him.
The final day's play began with some hope for Kerala. Even when Nair fell after having added just three runs to his overnight score of 132, it was a long shot for Kerala to try and gun down a score Vidarbha would set them. The dream, however far-fetched, was still alive when local boy
Aditya Sarwate spun one past Nair. There was turn, variable bounce, and plenty of bite off the pitch, especially with a new cherry Kerala had.
Then
Harsh Dubey was out lbw playing across the line to a full delivery from Eden Apple Tom. Two wickets inside the first 45 minutes of play had Kerala excited. Maybe the Gods were conspiring to make this another thriller? How could a team that got here on the back of leads by one run and two runs fizzle away so easily? Maybe there was another twist.
This feeling got even more stronger when Wadkar was bowled by one that scooted low. Sarwate, who had celebrated many special moments with Wadkar by his side in the Vidarbha dressing room, celebrated wildly now at having dismissed him. Sarwate had three wickets suddenly, and all of Kerala's prayers behind him.
This was when
Akshay Karnewar, an ambidextrous spinner, who hadn't had much of a role with his primary skills in the game, made an invaluable 30, which took plenty of time out from the game. As it veered towards lunch and beyond, Kerala's hopes dimmed, and it was effectively shut out by
Darshan Nalkande, who muscled a half-century at which point both teams decided they had had enough.
At 2.20pm, with tea looming, the stumps were drawn on an exhilarating season as Vidarbha were officially crowned champions. Having got to the semi-final on the back of the joint-most wins - alongside Mumbai - by a team in a season, they finished it off in typically khadoos style. It was a stonewalling effort led by Nair, whose fourth hundred of the season - and ninth overall, across formats led the way. There was also a half-century from the industrious Malewar, their 21-year-old batting hope.
They had more than made up for the first-innings lapse, when Nair was run-out after a mix-up with Malewar. That moment had the potential to be game-changing. For Vidarbha, it wasn't. Because theirs was an effort beyond just Nair's or Malewar's.
It was
Yash Rathod's too, as he finished the season with the most runs. Or Dubey's, who took the Ranji record for most wickets in a season. Or
Parth Rekhade, whose triple-wicket burst in the semi-final derailed Mumbai, or
Dhruv Shorey, who, like Nair, gelled into a new setting with ease. Or Wadkar, a battle-hardened veteran who held the team together through last year's defeat to finally stand atop the winner's podium with the trophy in hand.
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