Vidarbha bowler Rajneesh Gurbani has brought his team on cusp of a historic Ranji Trophy final as he picked up four wickets in his team’s defense of 198 runs.

Vidarbha scored 313 runs in their second innings in Karnataka’s reply of 301 runs. Ganesh Satish scored 81, while AA Sarvate scored 55 runs. AV Wankhede scored 49 runs to give Vidarbha some breathing space in terms of a lead of 198 runs.

R Vinay Kumar (3/71) and Stuart Binny (3/74) were the chief wicket takers, but Karnataka would rue the chance of bowling Vidarbha out when they had a chance. Karnataka had to chase 198 runs to meet Delhi in the finals of the Ranji Trophy.

Vidarbha bowlers meant to make things difficult for Karnataka batsmen and Siddhesh Neral and Umesh Yadav did just that. Neral removed Samarth for 24 and D Nischal for 7, while Umesh Yadav accounted for the dangerous Mayank Agarwal for 3 runs.

Karun Nair scored 30 and with 24 from CM Gautam, added 40 runs for the fourth wicket. But then Rajneesh Gurbani came on and removed both of them. He then accounted for Stuart Binny and K Gowtham to leave Karnataka 111/7.

Gurbani’s 4/35 has Vidarbha just 3 wickets short of reaching their first ever Ranji Trophy final and making history, as Karnataka will look to somehow get the 87 runs to win this game. They have captain R Vinay Kumar and Shreyas Gopal at the crease, who are both capable of getting the required runs.

The fifth and final day of the match will provide some thrilling cricket for the viewers for sure.

BRIEF SCORES:

VIDARBHA 185 & 313 and KARNATAKA 301 & 111/7
Karnataka needs 87 runs to win with 3 wickets in hand.