TWO-TIME champions Vidarbha will look to making hat-trick of Ranji Trophy titles when they take on domestic giants Mumbai in their own backyard at the iconic Wankhede Stadium from Sunday. After getting better of former champions Madhya Pradesh in semi-final and a formidable Karnataka in the quarters, Vidarbha have peaked at the right time. One more combined effort from the gutsy and battle-hardened team will help them lift the prestigious trophy once more. That is easier said than done. The opponents this time as Mumbai who are playing to pocket their 42nd title. For Vidarbha, all eyes will be on young southpaws Yash Rathod and Atharva Taide, the duo of professionals Karun Nair and Dhruv Shorey to deliver with the bat at top of the order. Skipper-stumper Akshay Wadkar has been the backbone scoring as many as seven fifties coming in at tight situations. The 23-year-old Rathod, who scored a match-winning 200-ball 141 against Madhya Pradesh in the semis to pocket the player of the match medal, is one of the most exciting talents. He has amassed 456 runs in five matches this season averaging 57.35. He began with a fine 81 against Rajasthan in Jaipur, followed by 42 against Maharashtra in Pune and 71 & 4 versus Haryana in Nagpur in the group league phase of the tournament.

 

In the quarter-final against Karnataka, he narrowly missed notching up his maiden First-Class century as he fell for 93, but was not to be denied the honour in the semi-final against MP. Rathod batted brilliantly in the second essay and shared a 158-run partnership with Wadkar (77) for the sixth wicket to set up Vidarbha’s victory. Nair, too, is in great form and is Vidarbha’s leading run-scorer this season with a tally of 616 from 9 matches, averaging 41.06. He is followed by Shorey (549), Wadkar (530) and Taide (529). Another youngster to watch out for is Aman Mokhade, who made a fine 59 against MP. Vidarbha bowlers, led by left-arm spinner Aditya Sarvate, have complemented their batters. Sarvate has so far taken 40 wickets at an average of 17.37, while pacers Aditya Thakare has claimed 33 victims, followed by Umesh Yadav (27) and Yash Thakur (21). Mumbai and Vidarbha have met only twice in Ranji Trophy. The first time was in 2013-14 when Mumbai beat Vidarbha by 338 runs at the Wankhede Stadium. In 2018-19, Vidarbha thrashed Mumbai by an innings and 145 runs. For Mumbai, coming second best is never an option and nothing short of a title would satisfy the connoisseurs of Mumbai cricket sitting in the Garware pavilion of the Wankhede Stadium.

 

Someone, who engineered India’s greatest overseas series win in Australia three winters back, Rahane’s international career has seen a sharp slump and right now he is not even in national reckoning. Though out of touch, Rahane, who has had a dismal average of 13.4 throughout the tournament, is a skilful leader. He couldn’t avail the services of an injured Suryakumar Yadav. Sarfaraz Khan wasn’t available after being picked for India A and subsequently for the Test series. Shreyas Iyer avoided a few games on pretext of injury. Prithvi Shaw (5 games), having recovered from injury only was available towards the business end. Shivam Dube, Shardul Thakur also played half of the games. But in Mumbai, it is the team that plays and they have known how to win Ranji Trophy even when a Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Dilip Vengsarkar weren’t available and the tradition has continued.