On Sunday, October 5, Vidarbha, the reigning Ranji Trophy champions, defeated Rest of India (ROI) by 93 runs to win the Irani Cup 2025, the annual first-class match, at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur. The third Irani Cup win came the way of Vidarbha after they managed to defend a 360-run total in the fourth innings against ROI on the fifth and final day of the final despite the best efforts with the bat from Yash Dhull and Manav Suthar.
At the start of play on day five, Rest of India needed 331 more runs to win with Indian Test stars Ishan Kishan and captain Rajat Patidar at the crease after losing two early wickets. But their third wicket partnership didn’t last long as Aditya Thakare got Rajat Patidar’s key wicket for 10 runs, dismissing him caught
and bowled, and a few overs later, Ruturaj Gaikwad fell to Darshan Nalkande for just seven runs.
Ishan Kishan was looking well set in the latter half of the first session on day five, but his 35 off 65 got cut short by Harsh Dubey, giving complete control of the contest to Vidarbha after reducing Rest of India to 80-5 in 26 overs in pursuit of 361-run target. Following that, youngster Yash Dhull, who walked out to bat at number six, took control of the ROI innings, sharing a 53-run stand for the sixth wicket with Saransh Jain (29 off 36) to keep his team’s hopes alive.
The best phase of the innings for Rest of India came when Yash Dhull shared a seventh wicket stand of 104 runs with Manav Suthar, but then, Yash Thakur dismissed him for 92 off 117, an innings which had eight fours and a six, to put Vidarbha in a winning position. Manav Suthar tried hard to extend the ROI innings, getting past his fifty, but his unbeaten 56 off 113 with four fours and one six wasn’t enough as the tail was cleaned up quickly.
Rest of India were bowled out for 267 runs in 73.5 overs, handing the third Irani Cup win to Vidarbha, led by Akshay Wadkar, since 2017, not winning against them once in tournament history.
