Vidarbha win maiden Ranji Trophy

Press Trust of India  |  Indore 

claimed their maiden Ranji Trophy after beating by nine wickets in the final of Indias domestic tournament here today.

a target of 29, completed the task with loss of wicket.


Opting to field, bowled out for 295 in the first innings with Rajneesh Gurbani picking up six wickets.

In reply, notched up a mammoth 547 all out, as Akshay Wadkar struck his maiden century in first-class

Overnight 528 for seven with wicketkeeper Wadkar unbeaten on 133, quickly picked up the remaining three wickets in the morning.

Young pacer was the most successful bowler for Delhi, returning figures of 5 for 135 after bowling a marathon 36.3 overs.

were a bowler short through the first innings as left-arm spinner Manan Sharma remained off the field due to a Manan, though, batted in the second innings.

In their second innings, were all out for 280 with Shorey scoring another half-century a 142-ball 62 while Nitish Rana struck 64.

chased down the 29-run target with a day to spare at the Holkar Stadium, which hosted the title clash of the tournament for the second successive time.

Trailing by 252 runs, lost opener Kunal Chandela with just 32 runs on the board. And a bigger blow was dealt on the seven-time winners when their most experienced campaigner, Gautam Gambhir, in what looked like a debatable decision, was adjudged out lbw off Gurbani to a ball that seemed to be heading down the leg side.

The out-of-favour opener looked in good touch during his quick 36 off 37 balls (32 coming in boundaries), and could have helped Delhis cause had he stayed longer.

First-innings centurion Shorey and Rana then added 110 runs for the third wicket.

The second session saw Shorey and Rana playing freely, hitting some lovely drives and flicks. However, as the team score reached 164, lost Shorey, who was given a reprieve by in first slip, to the left-arm spin of Aditya Sarwate.

Rana followed suit as he nicked the impressive Gurbani to Wadkar behind the stumps. Like in the first innings, Gurbani was again bowling his heart out and swung the new ball to good effect.

Himmat Singh, who had a fifty in the first essay, was bowled by off-spinner Akshay Wakhare before he could open his account.

And then came a reckless shot by (32), an attempted heave off Siddhesh Neral leading to his dismissal as ran out of batting options. This was an over after Pant was let off by Wadkar, who missed an easy stumping chance.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Mon, January 01 2018. 17:20 IST