GIVE him a red soil pitch or a black soil track, Harsh Dubey never disappoints. Vidarbha’s premier left-arm spinner Dubey rolled his arms to record his career-best first innings bowing performance as Vidarbha restricted Madhya Pradesh at 209 on the opening day of their Elite Group ‘A’ Ranji Trophy match at VCA Jamtha Stadium on Monday. At stumps Vidarbha were 56 for four in 23 overs, still trailing by 153 runs. Madhya Pradesh’s spinner Kumar Kartikeya got Vidarbha openers in his back-to-back overs. Aman Mokhade was the first to go, caught by Chanchal Rathore at short leg in the first over and then Satyam Bhoyar edged one to rival captain Rajat Patidar at first slips in the third over of the innings. R Samarth (17) was then brilliantly caught at backward point by Yash Dubey off pacer Avesh Khan, as the hosts felt the heat. Dhruv Shorey (21), who scored 168 against Goa in the last match and Vidarbha captain Akshay Wadkar (9), who had slammed 198 in the opener against Pondicherry, then steadied the ship with an unbeaten 21 runs stand for the fifth wicket when the day’s play ended.

 

However, the day belonged to Dubey who broke late Arun Ogiral’s Vidarbha’s 59 years old record of 8-39 in 1967 against Madhya Pradesh at VCA Civil Lines ground. Dubey’s 9-53 in first innings was also his personal best. He eclipsed his own record of 6-36 against Himachal Pradesh in November 2024, also in Nagpur. Dubey took all his nine wickets from city end as he utilised the spin and bounce of the track beautifully, in the process claiming his 10th fifer in First-Class cricket. Madhya Pradesh batters had no clue to Dubey’s slow deliveries. He changed the pace of his deliveries perfectly foxing the rival batters. For Madhya Pradesh, Athrava Mahajan waged the lone battle with a face-saving 85 (123b, 5x4, 3x6). The visitors were in doldrums at lunch with half of their side back in pavilion (8-5). Mahajan and Saransh Jain (34) steadied their innings with a 72 runs partnership for the sixth wicket. But that was soon broken by Dubey when he got Jain after lunch break. Mahajan then took the mettle in his own hands picking runs in boundaries and sixes as Madhya Pradesh recovered to take their total past 200-run mark. But Dubey had the last laugh as he cleaned up the MP tail in no time.