Early End To Ranji Final by Vidarbha Saw BCCI Officials Absent From The Ground

Till the time Nitish Rana and Dhruv Shorey were present at the crease on the fourth day of the final of Ranji Trophy 2017/18, it seemed like Delhi will at least put a target of 100 runs for Vidarbha and the game will continue till the fifth day.

However, the moment Aditya Sarwate got Shorey caught by Akshay Wadkar,  Delhi lost its remaining wickets in next 23 overs and the team was bowled out on 280.

The play was pushed back for few minutes than the original time – 4:36 was the time of stumps on day four – and Vidarbha chased down the target of 29 to win the Ranji Trophy title for the first time.

There were assumptions that play might continue till day five but it ended on day four, thus creating problems for BCCI as no top board official was present at the ground to give away the trophy to the winning team. Since Sanjay Jagdale, former Ranji Trophy player and administrator,  was present the ground, he was given the responsibility to do the honours.

Jagdale handed the trophy to Faiz Fazal, thus saving the BCCI. The lid on the top of the Trophy though fell a couple of times, but in the end, the team members lifted the 15 KG trophy with proud.

BCCI’s acting President, CK Khanna, also reached the city of Indore but till the time he landed, the game was already over, as per the Mirror.

Vidarbha won the Ranji Trophy title for the time. The Faiz Fazal led side defeated Delhi by nine wickets in the final. It was veteran Wasim Jaffer who hit the winning runs for the side and got the team past a mere target of 29.

In their second innings, Delhi posted a score of 280, thus asking Vidarbha to chase down just 29 runs which they did easily with loss of just one wicket.

Vidarbha’s fast bowler, Rajneesh Gurbani, was handed Man of the Match award for his match figures of 8/151 in the game which also includes a hat-trick in the first innings of Delhi. Vidarbha will now face Rest of India team in the Irani Cup for the first time which will be played in March.