Watch: Vidarbha beat Madhya Pradesh by 62 at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur runs to enter the Ranji Trophy final for the third time.

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Chasing 321, Madhya Pradesh started day five at 228-6, needing another 93 runs for victory with just four wickets in hand. But the Vidarbha bowlers made short work of the defence, taking only 10.3 overs to snare the remaining four wickets and win the semi-final.

Kumar Kartikeya was the first to go on the tenth ball of the fifth morning, cleaned up by Aditya Thakare for a duck. Ten balls later, Tahkare did the same to No.9 batter Anubhav Agarwal, taking his second wicket of the innings and reducing MP to 234-8.

Saransh Jain was the next to go, bowled by Yash Thakur at the score of 240, effectively ending all hopes for the visitors. Avesh Khan and Kulwant Khejroliya added 18 runs for the last wicket before the latter was bowled by Thakur, who finished with figures of 3-60, handing Vidarbha a 62-run victory.

Earlier in the game, the hosts had shot themselves in the foot by getting bowled out for 170 on the first day after winning the toss. MP took a 82-run lead with opener Himanshu Mantri scoring a hundred. Vidarbha fought back brilliantly in the second innings courtesy of strong contributions from their middle order.

Aman Mokhade (59), Karun Nair (38), Yash Rathod (141), and Akshay Wadkar (77)took Vidarbha to 402, setting the visitors a target of 321, which proved to be 62 runs too many in the end.

Rathod, a 23-year-old left-hand batter playing just his seventh first-class match, was awarded the Player of the Match award for his second-innings ton. 

With this victory, Vidarbha have set up a final date with 41-time champions Mumbai. This is the third time that Vidarbha have made the finals of the Ranji Trophy. The last two times they played the final of the tournament, they won it – in 2017-18 and 2018-19. They’ll hope to maintain their undefeated record in Ranji Trophy finals come March 10.

Watch Vidarbha enter their third Ranji Trophy final:

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