Vidarbha on the cusp of Ranji glory

At close on Day 4, Vidarbha were 249/4 in their second innings and enjoyed an overall lead of 286 runs with only last day's play remaining. Even if Vidarbha fail to force an outright victory, they will be declared Ranji champions on the basis of their 37-run first innings lead. It will be Vidarbha's third Ranji Trophy triumph, They lost to Mumbai in last year's final.

Having squeezed out a slender first inning lead after dismissing Kerala for 342 on Day 3, Vidarbha made a horrendous start to their second essay on Day 4 morning session. They lost both their openers --- Parth Rekhade (1) and Dhruv Shorey (5) with only 7 runs on the board. Kerala bowlers scented blood and attacked with gusto, but Danish Malewar and Karun Nair, who had rescued Vidarbha from 24/3 in the first innings with a mammoth 215-run stand, once again stood tall.

They took their time and settled nerves in the dressing room with some solid defending against Kerala spinners. The Vidarbha duo also enjoyed a bit of luck with Malewar twice benefitting from DRS calls and Nair was let off by Akshay Chandran off Eden Apple Tom's bowling when he was on 31. Vidarbha were 55/2 at that stage.

Nair and Malewar made most of their good fortune and extended their partnership. Nair reached his century just before the tea break to cap a memorable season during which he amassed runs in all three formats of the game in domestic competitions. Nair's fourth century this season in Ranji Trophy came off 185 balls with seven boundaries and two sixes.

It was Nair's ninth century, overall with five of them having come in the Vijay Hazare Trophy (One-Day format). Nair celebrated by holding up nine fingers.

Malewar missed out on registering his second century of the match when he was dismissed by Chandran for 73 which came off 162 balls and included five boundaries.Their partnership all but snuffed out Kerala's hopes and put Vidarbha well on top.

Yash Rathod and Nair added another 49 runs before the former fell for 24. Rathod, thus, finished as the season's highest run getter in Ranji Trophy with an aggregate of 960 runs @ 53.33 with 5 hundreds and 3 fifties.

Nair was going strong on 132 in the company of his captain Akshay Wadkar (4) when play ended for the day, leaving Vidarbha on the cusp of glory.

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, Eden 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 2nd innings 249/4 in 90 overs (Danish Malewar 73, Yash Rathod 24, Karun Nair 132 batting)

Vidarbha lead by 286 runs