Vijay Hazare Trophy: How Vidarbha stamped their authority as an all-format domestic force with one over Saurashtra to clinch maiden title

Confined to talent from a modest pool of eight districts, Vidarbha and coach Usman Gani have spent a decade and a half honing and perfecting their cartel of hustlers from the Nagpur factory. It is why they can weather last-minute jolts, such as losing senior pro and second-highest run-getter, Dhruv Shorey, on the eve of the final, without a fuss. Making up for Shorey’s absence, the 26-year-old Taide recorded his first hundred in the tournament since the winter of 2021 to hand Vidarbha their first senior white-ball title.

𝐕𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐡𝐚 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐕𝐢𝐣𝐚𝐲 𝐇𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐲 👏

Yash Thakur takes the last wicket to win it for Vidarbha 🙌

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Opting to bowl first on a red-soil strip, the lack of outright pace from Saurashtra played out distinctly across phases. The left-arm duo of Jaydev Unadkat and Chetan Sakariya barely probed past length deliveries in the Powerplay. Aman Mokhade and Taide did not appear enterprising either, but offered a couple of chances for Saurashtra.

Taide was on the edge in the third over when his bolt from the non-striker’s end met with Sakariya’s direct hit in his follow-through. Luckily, his scramble coincided with snoozy bails that stood in the groove for that extra millisecond that led him to the crease.

Pushing forward with crispy punches and pulls in front of the square, the opening pair was first disrupted by medium-pacer Ankur Panwar’s crafty spell. Making up for the absence in miles on the speed gun, Panwar’s whippy wrist appeared unsettling for Mokhade. Shortly after his record-breaking spree took him past 800 runs in the season, Mokhade’s excessive binding with the cut shot proved his undoing against Panwar, who found the inside-edge cutting back to the stumps.

The seamer would also trouble Taide with his skiddy lengths, encouraging a sharp leg-before shout and a streaky hoick that wasn’t far from the mid-wicket fielder’s reach. Another inside-edge boundary steered Taide to his half-century in 66 deliveries before he and Yash Rathod unravelled their shots off Saurashtra’s rigid attack. The left-handed pair whipped a six each off left-arm spinner Dharmendrasinh Jadeja as skipper Harvik Desai had to fall back on the blunted quicks.

Taide’s grossly unfulfilled potential thus far can be underscored by his blighting overdrive between the 80s and his century. It took him only 12 balls to cover the stretch, marked by four rasping boundaries on either side of the wicket off seamers Unadkat, Chirag Jani and Prerak Mankad. Switching to a spread of bottom-handed strokes across the line, Taide reeled in four more boundaries after bringing up his century in 97 balls, when the older ball and Panwar’s nagging lines began to arrest Vidarbha’s momentum.

Saurashtra snipped seven wickets in the last 11 overs, but Taide and Rathod’s 133-run partnership meant that Vidarbha had enough in the tank to erect a daunting run chase.

Chasing 318, the gulf in speeds between the respective seam contingents zoomed under the lights when Nachiket Bhute and Thakur snapped the openers within the Powerplay. Skipper Desai fell prey to Bhute’s inviting lengths outside the off-stump, while semi-final centurion Vishvaraj Jadeja was hurtled by Thakur’s extra pace, falling on nine, edging to the keeper.

It was down to Saurashtra’s utility men to stage a rearguard, and both Mankad and Jani responded with stoic knocks. Mankad’s fifth successive fifty from No. 3 lifted the chase before his 93-run association for the fifth wicket with Jani refuelled hopes.

Vidarbha weren’t ruffled by this mature riposte as the rougher ball continued to pose problems in the final 15 overs. Captain Harsh Dubey stubbed Mankad lbw on 88 in the 38th over before Darshan Nalkande accounted for Jani (64) in the 44th. Vidarbha’s all-round cohesion was etched on the trophy by the time Thakur claimed his fourth wicket, culminating in another triumph for Gani’s blooming colts.

Brief scores: Vidarbha 317/8 (Atharva Taide 128, Yash Rathod 54, Ankur Panwar 4/65) beat Saurashtra 279 (Prerak Mankad 88, Chirag Jani 64, Yash Thakur 4/50) by 38 runs