Vidarbha completed a 128-run hammering of Karnataka to cruise to the Ranji Trophy semifinal, riding on splendid four-wicket hauls by Harsh Dubey and Aditya Sarwate here on Tuesday.
It was a memorable win for the hosts here at the VCA Stadium at Civil Lines as Vidarbha came from behind on the final day to stop Karnataka in their tracks with a flurry of wickets.
Chasing a massive 371 to win, Karnataka had laid the foundation when they closed at 103 for one at stumps on the fourth day, but a spectacular batting collapse on the fifth day morning undid all their hardwork. With 268 more to win and nine wickets in hand, Karnataka would have backed themselves to cross the line but Dubey and Sarwate ran through their batting line-up to deliver a huge win for Vidarbha. Inside the first hour’s play, Karnataka lost the fulcrum of their batting unit including skipper Mayank Agarwal (70), Nikin Jose (0) and Manish Pandey (1) in a short span, with Sarwate (22-0-78-4) accounting for each of them.
Aneesh KV tried to stabilise the innings from one end but the No. 3 batter was run out for 40, which dealt a body blow to Karnataka’s hopes of winning the game Aneesh had added 40 runs for the sixth wicket with Hardik Raj (13) to lead recovery. Dubey (13.4-1-65-4) then got into the act to run through Karnataka’s lower order, starting with the key wicket of Raj, following it up with the dismissal of wicketkeeper-batter S Sharath for 6. The pair of Vijay Kumar Vyshak (34) and Vidwath Kaverappa (25) tried to delay the inevitable with a 33-run stand but Dubey kept chipping away with wickets to complete a fine four-wicket haul.
Karnataka were shot out for 243 in pursuit of 371 and were thus crashed out of the race to the semifinals. Vidarbha have joined Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the semifinal round. For his seven-wicket haul in the game, Sarwate was named the player of the match. Brief scores: Vidarbha 460 & 196 beat Karnataka 286 & 243 in 62.4 overs (R Samarth 40, Mayank Agarwal 70, Aneesh KV 40; Harsh Dubey 4/65, Aditya Sarwate 4/78) by 128 runs.
