Vidarbha who suffered a defeat in last year's final bounced back in style to script history by winning their maiden Vijay Hazare Trophy title with a 38 run victory over Saurashtra in the final at Bengaluru
on Sunday. Vidarbha were by far the best team in the tournament and under the leadership of Harsh Dubey have won the prestigious domestic 50 over title. Earlier in the game Vidarbha were batting first and started really well adding 80 runs for the opening wicket. Aman Mokhade was dismissed for 38. But Taide later formed a 133-run stand with Yash Rathod who scored 54 for the second wicket and Taide completed his century. With plenty of contributions down the order Vidarbha finished at 317/8.
Saurashtra pacer Ankur Panwar made a mark in the final, claiming 4/65 from 10 overs. It looked an above par total and chasing the massive target, Saurashtra lost a few wickets early in the chase but kept going and in the end fought really well with half-centuries from Prerak Mankad who scored 88 and Chirag Jani who smashed 64. But despite these efforts Saurashtra could not do much and in the end they were bowled out for 279. It was a pretty good bowling performance from Vidarbha side and they were clinical at the crucial stages of the game.
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It has been a terrific season for Vidarbha and a huge part has been played by opener Aman Mokhade who ended the season with a total of 814 runs from 10 innings at an incredible average of 90.44. He became the third batter to complete 800 runs in a single VHT season. He also equalled Jagadeesan and Karun Nair’s record for most centuries in a single VHT season, scoring five tons during this year’s tournament.
Panwar was the star for Saurashtra and has done really well throughout the season including the finals. He finished VHT this season with 25 wickets from 10 matches at an average of 21.32 and an economy rate of 5.86. This is a day which belongs to Vidarbha and they have etched their name in the history.
