Vidarbha defended their Irani Cup title after beating Rest of India via first-innings lead on Saturday.
On the final day of the match, Vidarbha, resuming from 37/1, declared their second innings at at 269/5, ending the match in a draw. But they had a 95-run first-innings lead.
Vidarbha also became the third side – after Bombay and Karnataka – to win the Irani Cup back-to-back.
After Ankit Rajpoot dismissed the opposition skipper Faiz Fazal in the fourth ball of the innings, Sanjay Raghunath (42) and Atharva Taide (72) put on a second-wicket partnership of 116.
Rahul Chahar dismissed Raghunath LBW when Vidarbha were 116 and Taide in the same manner when they were 146.
But Ganesh Satish (87) and Mohit Kale (37) put on a 83-run partnership that took their team closer to victory.
When Kale was dismissed, Vidarbha needed just 51 more runs with six wickets remaining. Satish put on another 40 runs with ‘keeper Akshay Wadkar before getting out to Hanuma Vihari when Vidarbha were 11 runs short of victory.
Earlier, Vihari’s unbeaten 180 in the second innings had helped Rest of India declare at 374/3. He became the first player to score a hat-trick of hundreds in the Irani Cup.
