Dubey five-for takes Vidarbha into Ranji final despite Shardul and Mulani's fightback
At one stage, Mumbai were 124 for 6 in pursuit of 406, but eventually fell only 80 runs short of the target
Dubey five-for takes Vidarbha into Ranji final despite Shardul and Mulani's fightback
At one stage, Mumbai were 124 for 6 in pursuit of 406, but eventually fell only 80 runs short of the target
At 66 wickets, Harsh Dubey is just two short of the record for most wickets in a Ranji season • PTI
Shardul Thakur's fighting half-century wasn't enough for another Mumbai rearguard as the defending champions lost the Ranji Trophy semi-final to Vidarbha, last year's finalists, in an absorbing contest that went into the final session of the final day in Nagpur.
Leading Vidarbha's run to the final - they've won two of three Ranji finals previously - against Kerala was left-arm spin-bowling allrounder Harsh Dubey, who picked up his seventh five-wicket haul of the season to take his wickets tally to 66. He's now just two short of Bihar left-arm spinner Ashutosh Aman's record for most wickets in a Ranji season.
Victory on the final day seemed a mere formality when Mumbai lost Shivam Dube and Suryakumar Yadav early, as they quickly slipped to 124 for 6. Dube played outside the line of a sharp in-ducker and was bowled by Yash Thakur, while Suryakumar saw one from Dubey jump on to him to lob a catch to the slips.
But from the depths of a crisis, Shardul rose to the occasion like he has a number of times this season. Typically aggressive, and batting with a sense of freedom and purpose, he quickly whittled down the runs during the course of a century stand with Shams Mulani.
At one point, halfway into the second session, Vidarbha's left-arm spinners even switched to a defensive line by bowling outside leg to Shardul to try and frustrate him into either slogging or stepping out against spread-out fields. Vidarbha missed a run-out opportunity to dismiss Shardul on 48 when Akshay Wadkar, their captain and wicketkeeper, failed to collect a throw cleanly from fine leg.
Vidarbha appeared to wobble briefly, but it was at that point that Mumbai gifted them a wicket in the form of the set Mulani when Shardul attempted to steal a single to square leg. Mulani, who hesitated briefly, was well short of the crease despite the dive as Danish Malewar's one-handed pick-up and throw with one stump to aim at hit the bulls eye to break a 103-run stand.
Shardul then began to open up and look at boundary attempts, sensing the possibility of being stranded, but was out to a superb delivery from Yash. He was caught on the hop to a short-of-a-length delivery that cut back in to breach his defence and hit the stumps.
Mumbai's last-wicket pair of Mohit Awasthi and Royston Dias had some fun in putting together a quickfire 52-run stand to bring the requirement down to less than three figures, before an audacious reverse sweep from Awasthi had him lbw as Dubey celebrated his fifth to seal victory.
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