On day one of the Ranji Trophy 2024/25 final on Wednesday (February 26), Vidarbha promoted fast bowler Darshan Nalkande to No.3 in the first over of the match.
This season's summit clash is taking place at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Jamtha, Nagpur, Vidarbha's home ground. Playing in their fourth final, they are looking to win their third title while their opponents Kerala had snuck into a first-ever Ranji Trophy final on the barest of first-innings leads in their quarter-final and semi-final clashes.
Final, Vidarbha vs Kerala
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Kerala skipper Sachin Baby won the toss and chose to field first. Both sides sprung slight surprises with their lineups as Kerala recalled pacer Eden Apple Tom for his first Ranji appearance in three years, and Vidarbha left out regular opening batter Atharva Taide for ambidextrous spinner Akshay Karnewar.
In the absence of Taide, Parth Rekhade was sent to open the batting in just his fifth first-class match. A bowling all-rounder, Rekhade had batted twice at No.9 and once each at No.5 and No.3 coming into the final. The promotion did not work, as he was trapped lbw off the second ball of the match.
Read more: Rookie spinner takes Rahane, SKY, Dube in five balls in Ranji semi-final
Walking out at the fall of Rekhade's wicket was Darshan Nalkande, a fast bowler with some ability with the bat. The promotion appeared strange, as Nalkande had not batted above No.8 in his 10 first-class innings until that point. His one innings of substance, though, had come against Kerala in February 2020 when he scored an unbeaten 66 off just 65 balls from No.10, walking in at 247-8 in the first innings.
Nalkande survived 20 balls, before looking to hook pacer MD Nidheesh. His mis-timed shot only landed in the hands of Nedumankuzhy Basil at deep mid-wicket, and he had to depart for one – becoming the second wicket to fall.
Unconventional promotion tactic the norm for Vidarbha
However, such promotions have not been completely out of the ordinary for Vidarbha.
In the semi-final against Mumbai, Rekhade was sent in at No.3 in the first innings after Taide was dismissed early, and in the quarter-final against Tamil Nadu it was fast bowler Aditya Thakare who performed that role.
All three of these promotions have come in knockout matches, and Vidarbha seemingly doubled down on it in the final, with Rekhade and Nalkande both in the top three.
The tactic is unconventional, but with the pitch in Nagpur in the first hour of play generally offering something for seam bowling, the idea may have been to have lower-order players attempt to see off the new ball before the batters could come in with more favourable conditions on offer.
Also read: Most wickets in a Ranji Trophy season, full list: Vidarbha spinner overtakes Bedi, enters top three
Australian skipper Don Bradman famously reversed the batting order on a wet wicket in the 1937 Ashes, before walking in at No.7 to score a double century. In similar, but not quite the same fashion, Uttar Pradesh sent seam bowler Praveen Kumar to open the innings as a pinch-hitter against Bengal in the 2006 Ranji Trophy final.
After Nalkande was dismissed, regular opener Dhruv Shorey also departed to leave Vidarbha 24-3. At that point, Danish Malewar and Karun Nair came together and put on a mountain of runs. Malewar reached a century to record a career-best score, and at the time of writing the pair have put on 201 runs.
Image credit: X / @BCCIDomestic
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