Ranji Trophy final: Karun Nair’s unbeaten 132 puts Vidarbha in command
Nair’s fourth century of the Ranji Trophy season — and ninth overall including the five tons in Vijay Hazare Trophy — gave Vidarbha the bragging rights and also put one hand on the Ranji Trophy with a third title win on horizon.

Karun Nair
NAGPUR: Karun Nair made the most of a reprieve to pile up an unbeaten 132 and power Vidarbha to a position of command with an overall lead of 286 runs at stumps on Day Four of their Ranji Trophy final here on Saturday.
Nair’s fourth century of the Ranji Trophy season — and ninth overall including the five tons in Vijay Hazare Trophy — gave Vidarbha the bragging rights and also put one hand on the Ranji Trophy with a third title win on horizon.
Vidarbha now has the summit clash of the 90th Ranji Trophy completely in its control after Nair’s 280-ball 132 not out helped it extend its first-innings lead of 37 runs to an overall 286 with only one day’s play left in the contest.
A dropped regulation catch in the 19th over of the day and the innings ended up having a huge impact as Nair went on to score another quality hundred, one that defied Kerala’s effort nearly all day long.
Danish Malewar also shone for the host Vidarbha at the VCA Stadium in Jamtha with the right-handed batter following up his first-innings' 153 with another resolute knock of 73.
But the biggest moment arrived in the 19th over when Kerala’s Akshay Chandran spilled a regulation grab at the first slip off Eden Apple Tom when Nair was on 31.
Eden’s length was short and the ball took off from the surface to take the edge of the bat and lob towards the first slip, where Chandran was required to grab with his hands reverse-cupped in front of his face.
But Chandran could not keep the ball in control which popped out of his hands and from thereon, Nair hardly gave anything away to his opponents.
Hitting an overall 10 fours and two sixes, Nair piled up another quality knock which added to the laurels he has collected this season and the celebration on reaching the triple-figure mark was only fitting.
Nair took off his helmet and waved it to the dressing room along with his bat, then put both his gears down to signal ‘nine’ with his fingers to show the number of centuries he has made this season across two competitions.
His strokeplay was serene as it has been throughout this season, with the senior batter getting his runs on both the sides of the wickets.
However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Vidarbha which began the day with a 37-run lead in the second innings.
Veteran spinner Jalaj Saxena (1/76) struck as early as in the second over to clean up Parth Rekhade while Mohammed Azharuddeen’s brilliance got Kerala the second breakthrough in the third.
Dhruv Shorey went chasing one outside the off which kept shaping away from him and despite the deflection off the edge, the ball kept moving away.
Azharuddeen flung to his right and collected the catch in front of the first slip which left Vidarbha in a spot of bother at 7/2 with overall lead of 44.
Brief scores: Vidarbha 379 & 249/4 in 90 overs (K Nair 132 batting, D Malewar 73) vs Kerala 342