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Ranji Kings: Five factors that led to Vidarbha's historic Ranji Trophy victory

DNA looks at five reasons that resulted in the Faiz Fazal-led Vidarbha to win in only their first final appearance in Ranji Trophy.

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For the second successive season, Ranji Trophy has thrown a new, first-time winner. After Gujarat in 2016-17, it is Vidarbha, who are the new Ranji Trophy champions. They defied all odds to make a dream beginning to the New Year, winning their maiden Ranji Trophy title by beating seven-time champions Delhi by nine wickets with a day to spare in Indore on Monday.

DNA looks at five main reasons that resulted in the Faiz Fazal-led Vidarbha win in only their first final appearance after five decades of participation, and playing in 266 matches.

1: Confidence from away wins: Such has been Vidarbha’s authoritative performance the whole season win by Vidarbha that they won four of their six Group D league matches including three away games. Two of them came against stronger outfits, Punjab (by an innings) and Bengal (by 10 wickets) in their own backyards. These victories gave them the confidence of going the distance in the tournament. They started believing in themselves and did not wait for home matches for their wins. Their mindset completely changed after these two wins, and showed in the rest of the tournament all the way till the title.

2. Rajneesh Gurbani’s sensational bowling: The right-arm medium-pacer may not be the highest wicket-taker in Ranji Trophy this season. With 39 wickets in six matches, he is second behind Jalaj Saxena of Kerala. But, the kind of impact Gurbani has made, especially in the last four matches taking 35 scalps with five five-wicket hauls and a hat-trick in Delhi’s first innings in the final, the 24-year-old has almost single-handedly bowled Vidarbha to title. Keeping his calm in tense final stages against Karnataka in the semifinal and helping his side win by five runs will be long remembered.

3. Captain Faiz Fazal leads the way: Call Faiz Fazal a veteran in domestic cricket, and he takes offence to it. He says he is only 32
and still a long way to be called a veteran. Fazal, who has been around for nearly a decade and a half, has led from the front by
scoring 912 runs at the top including five centuries, one of them a double. His opening stands with Sanjay Ramaswamy (775 runs) have given Vidarbha a strong foundation. The two, along with Ganesh Satish in the middle order, have given their sides adequate totals to defend successfully. Fazal and Ramaswamy are second and third, respectively, in the list of highest run-getters this season.

4. Wasim Jaffer’s experience: Barring two players – Wasim Jaffer and Ganesh Satish – in the Vidarbha ranks, none of them have known what it means to be in a Ranji Trophy final, let alone win it. Former India Test opener Wasim Jaffer left Mumbai with a heavy heart after the 2014-15 season and made Vidarbha his adopted state to play cricket. He had been part of eight Ranji Trophy wins for Mumbai, twice as captain during the 19 seasons he played for the most successful side in Ranji Trophy history. He used all his experience to guide Vidarbha to title. It was only apt that Jaffer scored the winning runs for Vidarbha on Monday.

5. Chandrakant Pandit’s coaching skills: It could not have been any better for Vidarbha chief coach Chandrakant Pandit, who was removed from the same post with Mumbai after 2016-17 season despite guiding them to Ranji Trophy finals in successive seasons, winning in 2015-16 and finishing runners-up in 2016-17. Pandit, a tough task master, had earlier coached Mumbai to Ranji Trophy wins and certainly knows the knack of turning ordinary sides into champion outfits. For starters, he took the Vidarbha players out of their comfort zones. He made them realise their potential and nurtured them, dealing with individual
players in their own ways.

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