Pacer Darshan Nalkande's early strikes put Vidarbha in control against Kerala on Day 2 of the Ranji Trophy final in Nagpur on Thursday.
Nalkande took 2/8 in four overs in his first spell to rock Kerala early before they recovered to 57/2 at the tea break in reply to Vidarbha's first innings total of 379.
He struck in the first over of the innings when he bowled Rohan Kunnummal for a three-ball duck. In his next over, Nalkande struck again as he produced a beauty to bowl left-hander Akshay Chandran for 14.
Aditya Sarwate (31 not out) and Ahammed Imran (10) steadied Kerala after the early wickets as they put on an unbroken stand of 43 for the third wicket.
Earlier, Danish Malewar top-scored with a brilliant 153 to power Vidarbha to 379 in their first innings.
Resuming the second on day on 254/4, Kerala's bowlers got their team back into the contest with regular wickets in the morning session.
Vidarbha stumbled after Malewar, who hit 15 fours and three sixes in his 285-ball knock, was bowled by Nedumankuzhy Basil. The hosts lost three wickets for seven runs as Yash Thakur (25) and Yash Rathod (3) perished in successive overs to slip to 297/7.
Captain Akshay Wadkar contributed with a vital 23 to steady the Vidarbha innings before they again lost two quick wickets to be reduced to 335/9.
Lastman Nachiket Bhute stroked 32, putting 44 runs for the 10th wicket with Harsh Dubey (12) to take Vidarbha past the 350-run mark.
For Kerala, Eden Apple Tom and M D Nidheesh grabbed three wickets each, while Basil bagged 2/60