Shardul Thakur scored a valiant fifty but it was left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey who stole the limelight with a brilliant five-wicket haul as Vidarbha secured a commanding 80-run victory over defending champions Mumbai to reach the Ranji Trophy final in Nagpur on Friday.
In a thrilling final day, Dubey, the 22-year-old from Pune, claimed three wickets to add to his two from Day 4, taking his season's tally to 66. His match-winning performance helped Vidarbha, last year's finalists, bowl out Mumbai for 325 while chasing a challenging target of 406.
This marks Vidarbha's fourth appearance in the Ranji Trophy final, with previous titles coming in 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons.
Dubey took his season's tally to 66 wickets, just two shy of Bihar left-arm spinner Ashutosh Aman's record for the most wickets in a Ranji season.
Mumbai fought hard, with Thakur playing a solid knock of 66 off 124 balls, including five boundaries and a six.
He and Shams Mulani (46) formed a resilient 103-run partnership for the seventh wicket, but a key run-out by Danish Malewar shifted the momentum in Vidarbha's favour.
Mulani, who had worked hard for his runs, was dismissed after playing 94 balls.
Thakur's resistance ended when he was clean bowled by a sharp in-ducker from Yash Thakur, leaving Mumbai at 254 for 8.
However, Royston Dias and Mohit Awasthi added 52 runs for the final wicket, taking Mumbai past 300 in 93.4 overs.
Ultimately, it was Dubey who wrapped things up in the final session, trapping Awasthi to seal the win for Vidarbha.
Earlier, Mumbai resumed their innings at 83 for 3, but Shivam Dube fell early in the morning when Yash Thakur found a gap between the bat and pad to remove him.
Suryakumar Yadav (23) and Anand brought up Mumbai's 100 in the 38th over, but their 31-run stand was broken by Dubey, who had Yadav caught off the shoulder of the bat by Atharva Taide.
Akash Anand (39), who had scored a century in the first innings, fell next after a DRS review confirmed he was trapped by Dubey, leaving Mumbai in deep trouble.
Mulani and Thakur then added 50 runs in 83 balls to bring up 200, but the game turned when Malewar produced a stunning piece of fielding, hitting the stumps directly to run out Mulani.
Brief Scores:
Vidarbha 383 & 292 beat Mumbai 270 & 325 all out in 97.5 overs (Shardul Thakur 66, Shams Mulani 46; Harsh Dubey 5/127) by 80 runs.
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