Nagpur: Yash Dhull smashed his way to 92 but Vidarbha bowling unit proved too good for Rest of India as they comfortably won the Irani Cup by 93 runs here on Sunday.
Chasing a target of 361, Rest of India were all out for 267 in the second session of the fifth day with left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey (4/73) and pacer Yash Thakur (2/47) doing bulk of the damage.
Vidarbha now have played three Irani Cup games and won all three.
Credit would go to Dubey and Thakur — both of whom had a match-haul of six wickets and did well enough to get majority of the 20 Rest of India wickets across two innings.
Rest had slumped to 133 for six during the first session on the final morning but it was Dhull and Manav Suthar (56), who got Rest of India back in the game with a 104-run stand for the seventh wicket stand.
However it was Thakur who put paid to Rest’s hopes of an improbable win when Dhull tried to slash him but Atharva Taide at deep third man boundary took a well-judged catch inches inside the boundary ropes.
The dismissal was followed by an ugly incident where bowler Thakur and Delhi man Dhull nearly came to exchanging blows after the former had given the batter a rather rude send off.
The two umpires and Vidarbha fielders came between them to calm things but both will get some sort of sanction from the match referee.
Off the very next ball, Thakur cleaned up Akash Deep and before Dubey, last year’s highest wicket-taker in Ranji Trophy, ended the game in style.
“Vidarbha played well and were deserving winners. If we had applied ourselves in a better way, after assessing the conditions, I think we could have come close to the total,” Rest of India skipper Rajat Patidar said after the end of the match.
For Vidarbha, Atharva Taide, who scored 143 in their first essay and took a timely catch to dismiss danger man Dhull was adjudged player of the match.
“Last couple of seasons weren’t great for me. But this season, I prepared very well. I wanted to make an impact for my team and starting the season with the Irani Cup had been better than this.
“So all this evening is for VCA. Everybody, my coach, selector, everybody who’s back me throughout the season is for them,” said Taide.
The national selectors, who are looking at the overall picture, also would be happy that Akash Deep looked fully fit having recovered from his shoulder injury suffered during the Oval Test against England in August.
Akash bowled 29 overs (19 and 10) across both innings and took three wickets. He looked sharp during his first spell.
On the batting front, Abhimanyu Easwaran’s poor track record of not being able to win crucial knock-out games for his team continued despite scoring a half-century in the first innings.
Easwaran was dismissed in identical fashion across both innings.
An arm ball from a left-arm spinner — Parth Rekhade in the first essay and Harsh Dubey in the second dig ended his stay.
Both times he went on the backfoot and was caught plumb in-front.
Brief Scores: Vidarbha: 342 and 232.
Rest of India: 214 and (target 361): 267 all out in 73.5 overs (Yash Dhull 92, Manav Suthar 56, Harsh Dubey 4/73 and Yash Thakur 2/47).
