Vidarbha blows away Kerala to reach Ranji final

Wayanad

This is the first time Kerala has qualified for the Ranji Trophy semi-final.Yadav added five wickets to his first innings haul of 7 for 48 as Vidarbha bundled out Kerala for 91 in the second innings to seal the low-scoring contest a little after lunch on the second day of the five-day semifinal.Resuming at 171 for 5, the defending champion finished at 208 all out in 52.4 overs to take the lead past the 100-run mark thanks to some lusty hitting by Yadav (17, 8 balls, 1X4, 2X6) at No.10.

However, another poor batting performance by the host despite the bright start provided in the second innings by K B Arun Karthick (36, 33 balls, 5X4, 1X6) and Jalaj Saxena (7) resulted in a swift end to the proceedings.

Kerala went into lunch at 66 for 7, trailing by 36 runs. Yash Thakur proved to be the ideal foil for Yadav (5 for 31), taking 4 for 28 as Kerala collapsed from 59 for 1 to 66 for 7 in the space of five overs.

After lunch, Yadav took two more wickets to complete the rout. Kerala had begun the second innings confidently, shuffling the batting order on a pitch which had something for the bowlers. Arun Karthick batted aggressively against Yadav and Rajneesh Gurbani.

The plan worked for a while before Yadav broke through, having Saxena caught behind by A Wadkar.Vishnu Vinod, who made the top score in the first innings, was pushed up the order to No. 3, but struggled against Yadav’s pace and movement, and edged one to the slip cordon.Yash Thakur replaced Gurbani and got Karthick with a delivery that came in.

The run-out of captain Sachin Baby to a direct hit put Kerala in trouble.

Brief scores: In Kerala (1st innings) 106 & (2nd innings) 91 in 24.5 overs (Umesh Yadav 5/31, Y Thakur 4/28) lost to Vidarbha (1st innings) 208 in 52.4 overs (F Fazal 75). In Bengaluru: Karnataka (1st innings) 275 vs Saurashtra (1st innings) 227/7 (S Patel 85, C Pujara 45, S Jackson 46, R More 5/54)

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