Vidarbha's young left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey came up with an inspired show, grabbing six wickets as last year's runners-up consolidated their position at the top of Group B, defeating Hyderabad by 58 runs in the Ranji Trophy match in Nagpur on Sunday. (Highlights | More Cricket News)
꧟Dubey, who was adjudged the 'Player of the Match' for his efforts, stopped Hyderabad in the tracks on the last day of the contest as he returned figures of 6/57 in the second innings.
ཧHyderabad, who were out of the race for a quarterfinal berth long back, were fancying their chances of defeating the already qualified Vidarbha and bowing out on a high.
♏The 220-run winning target was very much in their grasp after Hyderabad began the day at 23/1 needing just 197 runs for victory, but Dubey kept striking at regular intervals as the visitors' entire top and middle-order was wiped out in no time.
ওOvernight batter Tanay Thyagarajan was the first to depart for the addition of just 13 runs to the team total when he was cleaned up by Vidarbha pacer Aditya Thakare for 18.
From thereon, Dubey, who made his domestic debut in 2022, started the dismantling job, accounting for Kodimela Himateja, Varun Goud, skipper Chama Milind and tailenders Rakshan Readdi and Mohammed Siraj.
ꦡSiraj put up some resistance, scoring a quick-fire 14-ball 26 with the help of three boundaries and two maximums, but his dismissal, caught by Atharva Taide off Dubey ended Hyderabad's resistance.
꧙This was the young spinner's seventh five-wicket haul in 15 first-class games and he ended the match with an eight-wicket haul.
𒀰Vidarbha, who logged 40 points from seven games, are in ominous form like last year. They haven't tasted defeat in their group this season, winning six matches with one game ending in a draw.
ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚThey have been followed into the quarterfinals by Gujarat, who sealed their spot in the knockouts with a nine-wicket win over Himachal Pradesh on Saturday.
🐈In another match in the group, the contest between bottom-scrapers Puducherry and Uttarakhand ended in a tame draw with the only bright spot on the final day being a well-crafted 89 off 123 deliveries by the hosts' middle-order batter Akash Kargave.
♕Puducherry ended their second innings at 201/8.
Brief Scores:
In Nagpur:ꦑ Vidarbha 190 & 355 all out in 95.2 overs (Karun Nair 105, Atharva Taide 93; Mohammed Siraj 3/59) beat Hyderabad 326 & 161 in 38.5 overs (Rahul Radesh 48, Mohammed Siraj 26; Harsh Dubey 6/57, Parth Rekhade 2/33) by 58 runs.
In Puducherry:🍸 Puducherry 427 & 201 for 8 in 65.5 overs (Akash Kargave 89) drew with Uttarakhand 273 al lout in 98.3 overs (Aanjaneya Suryavanshi 79, Ravikumar Samarth 59; Sagar Udeshi 6/81).
