Nagpur: Vidarbha worked their way to a solid first-innings total of 379, thanks to a phenomenal partnership between Karun Nair and Danish Malewar. However, Kerala fought back by making quick work of the tail, snapping up the 10th wicket after lunch on the second day of Ranji Trophy final being played at VCA’s Jamtha Stadium in Nagpur.
Vidarbha may have hoped for the best while sending out a nightwatchman early on Day 1 with the conditions being extremely favourable for pacers at the time but expected to ease off later, and the best is exactly what they got. After they lost three wickets early, Danish Malewar and Karun Nair batted out almost the entirety of the day after that and put Vidarbha in a position of strength going into Day 2. Vidarbha continued their innings on an overnight score of 254/4 in 86 overs on the second day, with Malewar batting on 138 off 259 balls.
Gold Rate
03 April 2025
Malewar’s stand with Karun produced 215 runs in 414 balls for the fourth wicket. Karun’s innings ended off the very first ball of the new ball in the 82nd over but the credit didn’t go to the bowler as he was run out. Karun tried to run a bye and Malewar initially said yes before trying to send his partner back. Karun couldn’t turn around quickly enough and fell on 86 off 188 balls.
“The run-out was unfortunate, you cannot say who was at fault in it. Had that not happened, we would’ve been in an even better position because they got a wicket of a set batter at the day’s end,” said Malewar after the day’s play.
Talking about his fourth-wicket partnership with Nair, Malewar said the plan was to play with patience. “We wanted to keep it simple, not play too many shots but play with the patience of the bowlers. He keeps helping, guiding in being patient, especially when there has been a lapse in concentration,” he said.
Vidarbha came into the final as one of the most dominant teams of the season. They went with a 6-1-0 record in the group stages, remaining unbeaten, and then went on to beat the always-strong Tamil Nadu in the quarters, before knocking out the defending champions Mumbai when it finally looked like they had put the pieces together after a lacklustre group stage.
Kerala, on the other hand, are in the final of the Ranji Trophy for the first time in their history. They first scraped by thanks to a narrow first-innings lead over the favoured Jammu and Kashmir. Next, they looked set to lose out on a first-innings lead against Gujarat, and therefore on the final, but a miraculous bounce off Salman Nizar’s helmet at short-leg gave them an equally miraculous passage through to the finals.
