Dubey’s 14-Wicket Match Haul Seals Vidarbha’s Innings-and-20-Run Win Over Madhya Pradesh

Nagpur: Vidarbha completed a crushing innings-and-20-run victory over Madhya Pradesh on the third day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match at the VCA Stadium in Jamtha, earning a vital bonus point in the process. The win, sealed in just two hours and 15 minutes on the final morning, was built on spin — and on one remarkable individual performance. Harsh Dubey, whose career-best 9 for 53 in the first innings was reported on T20STAR earlier this week — added five more wickets in the second innings to finish with career-best match figures of 14 for 90. That haul took him to the top of the Ranji Trophy wicket-taking charts, with 28 wickets at 11.64 in the first four rounds of the season. Madhya Pradesh’s second innings unravelled in a horror opening session. Resuming in trouble, they were bowled out for 105 in 33.3 overs. Saksham Purohit top-scored with 34 and Shubham Sharma made 20, but nobody else reached 20 as Dubey and Parth Rekhade shared all ten wickets between them. Rekhade finished with 5 for 14 from seven overs, while Dubey took 5 for 37, and the innings ended when Dubey wrecked Chanchal Rathore’s stumps. The collapse completed a remarkable turnaround in a match Madhya Pradesh had started well. They made 209 in their first innings, with Atharva Mahajan scoring 85, before Dubey ran through them with his nine-wicket haul. Vidarbha then looked in deep trouble in reply, slipping to 87 for 6, before captain Akshay Wadkar and Nachiket Bhute turned the match around. Wadkar scored a century before retiring hurt, Bhute smashed 97 off 111 balls, and their 175-run seventh-wicket partnership carried Vidarbha to 334 — a first-innings lead of 125 runs that Madhya Pradesh never looked like erasing. From there, the spinners took over. Madhya Pradesh lost opener Yash Dubey for four off just two balls to Rekhade at the start of their second innings, and the pressure never eased. By the time the final morning arrived, the result was a formality, and Dubey and Rekhade finished the job in quick time. For Vidarbha, the bonus-point win is a significant early-season statement in Group A. For Dubey, it is another chapter in a season that is fast becoming a breakthrough: the left-arm spinner has now taken 28 wickets in four rounds, and his 14-wicket match haul at Nagpur will take some beating as the season’s standout bowling performance.