Resuming on 131/3, Kerala captain Sachin Baby batted patiently in the company of his overnight partner Aditya Sarvate. The duo took the score to 170 before the latter was dismissed for 79. Sarvate, who was played confidently and fluently on Day 2, was strangely subdued on the third morning. He was dismissed by Harsh Dubey.
Salman Nizar (21) and Mohammed Azharudden (34) stuck around for a while, playing 42 and 59 balls respectively, but ultimately lost their patience as well as their wickets. Nizar fell LBW to Dubey and Azharudden was dismissed by Darshan Nalkande.
All this seemed to have no effect on Sachin, who was a picture of concentration in the middle. He added 46 runs for the seventh wicket with Jalaj Saxena, taking the team's score to 324 to frustrate Vidarbha.
However, needing only two runs to complete his century, Sachin went for a big hit and ended up mistining it to Karun Nair at deep midwicket off the bowling of Parth Rekhade. It was his first mistake and he paid for it. He played 235 balls for his 98 which included 10 hits to the fence.
Sachin's dismissal exposed Kerala's tail to Vidarbha's spin twins and Dubey and Rekhade ran through the lower order with ease. Both finished with three wickets apiece.
Dubey became the highest wicket-taker in a single season of Ranji Trophy with 69 wickets to his name.
BRIEF SCORES
Vidarbha 1st innings 379 all out in 121.1 overs (Danish Malewar 153, Karun Nair 86, Yash Thakur 25, Akshay Wadkar 23, Nachiket Bhute 32; Nidheesh 3/61, Edhen Apple Tom 3/102, Basil NP 2/60)
Kerala 1st innings 342 all out in 125 overs (Aditya Sarvate 79, Ahammed Imran 37, Sachin Baby 98, Salman Nizar 21, Mohd Azharudeen 34, Jalaj Saxena 28; Darshan Nalkande 3/52, Parth Rekhade 3/65, Harsh Dubey 3/88)
Vidarbha lead by 37 runs in first innings