Far from the madding crowd lies the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium.
It is the last stop for a maddeningly thrilling journey for Kerala in India’s premier domestic cricket tournament. An 81-run partnership by the last pair against Jammu & Kashmir that gave a one-run first-innings lead in the quarterfinal; a two-run lead, courtesy a helmet worn by a close-in fielder, in the semifinal. And both those encounters were decided by the first innings.
You could argue that Sachin Baby’s men have been lucky. But, they have earned that luck.
They have played with a lot of pluck this season to make it to the final of the Ranji Trophy for the first time in history. They may not mind starting as the underdog against Vidarbha in the final starting on Wednesday.
Vidarbha has played some great cricket this season. The home team reached its fourth final in seven years after beating Tamil Nadu and Mumbai outright in the knock-out fixtures. That was after topping the group winning six of its seven games and taking the first-innings lead in the remaining one.
Vidarbha looks a very balanced side, has quite a few players in form, and is going to play its third match in a row at home. The host should be hoping Yash Rathod continues with his dream run with the bat and Harsh Dubey his with the ball.
Rathod has amassed 933 runs, with five centuries, while Dubey has claimed 66 wickets, with seven five-wicket hauls. Skipper and keeper Akshay Wadkar (674) and the born-again Karun Nair (642) have been among the runs, too.
Salman Nizar and Mohammed Azharuddeen have been the standout batters for Kerala, both scoring in excess of 600 and averaging 86.71 and 75.12 respectively. Seasoned spinners Jalaj Saxena and Aditya Sarwate have taken 68 wickets between them.
And Sarwate was playing for Vidarbha till last season. That should be another interesting subplot.
The teams (from): Vidarbha: Akshay Wadkar (Capt.), Atharva Taide, Dhruv Shorey, Parth Rekhade, Danish Malewar, Karun Nair, Yash Rathod, Harsh Dubey, Nachiket Bhute, Yash Thakur, Aditya Thakare, Darshan Nalkande, Aman Mokhade, Akshay Karnewar, Yash Kadam, Akshay Wakhare and Siddhesh Wath.
Kerala: Sachin Baby (Capt.), Rohan Kunnummal, Akshay Chandran, Jalaj Saxena, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Salman Nizar, Ahammed Imran, Shoun Roger, Aditya Sarwate, M.D. Nidheesh, N.P. Basil, Varun Nayanar, Basil Thampi, Anand Krishnan, Sreehari S. Nair, N.M. Sharafuddeen and Eden Apple Tom.
Published – February 25, 2025 07:52 pm IST
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