Vidarbha's Harsh Dubey shows the ball after breaking Ranji Trophy record for most wickets in a season, during the third day of a Ranji Trophy final cricket match between Kerala and Vidarbha, in Nagpur, Maharashtra, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. Dubey has taken 69 wickets so far in the ongoing Ranji Trophy season. (PTI Photo)The groundsmen lingered near the pitch until Jamtha turned eerily dark and before the swarm of bats flew out from their hideouts under the floodlights. The long-toothed brooms whipped up clouds of dust from the weary surface, before the staff flattened the roughs with large, green hammers.
Beyond the boundary ropes, on the linear balcony with wood-panelled walls, Vidarbha’s players were chit-chatting and giggling. The opposite end was empty, the Kerala contingent had left in a hurry, leaving just a trail of empty water bottles, torn sheets of paper and perhaps broken shards of their dreams.
The mood of the two sides could not have been starker when the third day ended. Vidarbha were jubilant and relaxed. They might not be underestimating Kerala’s comeback tendencies, there could be more devious twists, yet the joy born out of Kerala’s flaky collapse, was irresistible for them to hide. Harsh Dubey, who became the highest wicket-taker in a single Ranji season, reveals as much: “We definitely have a massive advantage, a lead of 37 runs, and they have to bat last. But we have seen Kerala fight back this year, and in cricket anything is possible.”
Record Alert! 🚨
6⃣9⃣ & counting…🔥
Vidarbha's Harsh Dubey has broken the record for most wickets in a #RanjiTrophy season 👏
He's picked up 69 wickets in the season so far, going past Ashutosh Aman's tally of 68👌👌@IDFCFIRSTBank
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/up5GVaflpp pic.twitter.com/MsKiAnM8qG
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) February 28, 2025
Anything is quite possible. All four results—win for either team, a draw and tie, loom theoretically. But practically, a draw looks unlikely. The pitch has not yet transformed into an abominable turner. But the degree of turn has progressed by the day, from 1.6 to 4.2 on Day 3. It could increase in the last two days.
A couple of roughs have swelled and had begun to misbehave. Dubey’s delivery to nail Aditya Sarwate—the ball kicking up and brushing the bat handle — seeded doubts in the mind of his colleagues. Later in the day, medium pacer Darshan Nalkande’s short-of-length ball to Sachin Baby shot along the surface. A Parth Rekhade ball took some skin off the surface in the final session. The devils are slowing rearing their heads.
Used to the nature of the strips here, Dubey believes the pitch would start turning more (and wickedly) on Day 4 and 5. “It would still be good to bat, a few balls would turn and bounce, but if someone bats like Sachin (Baby) until his brain-fade moment, he can get runs. Lekin zaroor ghoomega,” he fires a warning shot with the last sentence of the answer. “Ghoomega” is when the ball not only turns, but grips, bites and snaps off the surface. Batting would be reduced to a lottery.
Relive 📹
Triple Treat 👌👌👌
The 3⃣ wickets that helped Vidarbha all-rounder Harsh Dubey break the record for most wickets in a #RanjiTrophy season 👏👏#RanjiTrophy | @IDFCFIRSTBank | #Final
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/up5GVaflpp pic.twitter.com/xmyvOjiq36
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) February 28, 2025
If so, Kerala’s most plausible comeback route hinges on their condition-reliant spin-duet of Jalaj Saxena and Aditya Sarwate wreaking havoc and bowling out Vidarbha for a meagre tally. Both were largely ineffective on the first day, but when they sight a turner, wings would sprout on the shoulders in a trice. They could be deadly in the first session, when the overnight moisture facilitates skid and bounce. Batting, though, could be less arduous when the ball becomes softer, even if the pitch wears more. “We would look to bat as long as possible,” Dubey says.
Striving for survival could be counterintuitive, as wickets could fall in a cluster and there would not be adequate runs on the board. Moreover, Vidarbha has set tall targets for teams to chase in the final innings (and defended all). They could do the same here, in the 37-run cushion of the first-innings lead and Kerala’s unenviable task of batting last on this surface.
That would be the toughest test for Kerala. Mumbai did muster 320 runs on the final day, but that was on a black-soil surface. The turn was slow, even if a few balls spat off cracks. There was the instance on a similar surface in 2022-23 when Gujarat had to chase only 74 runs but were ambushed for 54. Revisiting the scorecard could give Kerala shivers, but the identity of Gujarat’s hangman would cheer them. It was Sarwate, albeit at the peak of his wicket-taking prowess.
More damningly, they would have to devise means to slash the climbing graph of Dubey. He was, yet again, Vidarbha’s tireless strike-force. He strung 44 overs (out of 125 in the innings), mesmerised Kerala’s batsmen with loop, drift and drop, hurried them with his spitefully disguised armer and frustrated them with asphyxiating lengths. Just seven boundaries were accrued from his bowling.
In isolation, he also struck the most decisive blow of the day. He dislodged Salman Nizar, Kerala’s batting mainstay, at the stroke of lunch. It was not as heartbreaking a moment for Kerala as the Baby “brain-fade”, but important nonetheless in the context of the game. Dubey realised that Salman was playing for lunch and was leaving most balls. His concentration was wavering. So he made one rip from outside the off-stump, which he padded up and was adjudged lbw. Kerala’s batsmen should keep such intemperances away, if they are to pull off another heist. Now, though, their fate is in the calloused fingers of Saxena and Sarwate.
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