Dubey's incredible five-for propels Vidarbha into Ranji final despite Shardul and Mulani's resistance

Vidarbha secured a thrilling victory over Mumbai by 80 runs in their recent match. In the first innings, Vidarbha scored 383 runs with standout performances from Malewar (79 runs), Shorey (74 runs), and Dube (5-49). Mumbai managed to score 270 runs in response, with Anand scoring a century (106 runs) and Rekhade taking 4 wickets for Vidarbha. In the second innings, Vidarbha posted a total of 292 runs, led by Rathod's impressive knock of 151 runs and Wadkar's contribution of 52 runs. Mumbai's Mulani put up a strong performance with the ball, taking 6 wickets for 85 runs. Chasing a target of 406 runs for victory, Mumbai fell short as they were bowled out for 325 runs. Shardul scored 66 runs and Mulani chipped in with 46 runs, but Dube's 5-127 helped Vidarbha secure the win.

Shardul Thakur's fighting half-century wasn't enough for another Mumbai rearguard as the defending champions lost the Ranji Trophy semi-final to Vidarbha, last year's finalists, in an absorbing contest that went into the final session of the final day in Nagpur.

Leading Vidarbha's run to the final - they've won two of three Ranji finals previously - against Kerala was left-arm spin-bowling allrounder Harsh Dubey, who picked up his seventh five-wicket haul of the season to take his wickets tally to 66. He's now just two short of Bihar left-arm spinner Ashutosh Aman's record for most wickets in a Ranji season.

Victory on the final day seemed a mere formality when Mumbai lost Shivam Dube and Suryakumar Yadav early, as they quickly slipped to 124 for 6. Dube played outside the line of a sharp in-ducker and was bowled by Yash Thakur, while Suryakumar saw one from Dubey jump on to him to lob a catch to the slips.

But from the depths of a crisis, Shardul rose to the occasion like he has a number of times this season. Typically aggressive, and batting with a sense of freedom and purpose, he quickly whittled down the runs during the course of a century stand with Shams Mulani.

At one point, halfway into the second session, Vidarbha's left-arm spinners even switched to a defensive line by bowling outside leg to Shardul to try and frustrate him into either slogging or stepping out against spread-out fields. Vidarbha missed a run-out opportunity to dismiss Shardul on 48 when Akshay Wadkar, their captain and wicketkeeper, failed to collect a throw cleanly from fine leg.

Vidarbha appeared to wobble briefly, but it was at that point that Mumbai gifted them a wicket in the form of the set Mulani when Shardul attempted to steal a single to square leg. Mulani, who hesitated briefly, was well short of the crease despite the dive as Danish Malewar's one-handed pick-up and throw with one stump to aim at hit the bulls eye to break a 103-run stand.

Shardul then began to open up and look at boundary attempts, sensing the possibility of being stranded, but was out to a superb delivery from Yash. He was caught on the hop to a short-of-a-length delivery that cut back in to breach his defence and hit the stumps.

Mumbai's last-wicket pair of Mohit Awasthi and Royston Dias had some fun in putting together a quickfire 52-run stand to bring the requirement down to less than three figures, before an audacious reverse sweep from Awasthi had him lbw as Dubey celebrated his fifth to seal victory.