Vidarbha was not the real contenders to win the Ranji Trophy 2017-18 but playing against seven times winner Delhi they had nothing to lose. They played some great cricket throughout the season and were unbeaten. The team did not get overwhelmed in their maiden Ranji Trophy final. They had won their matches by huge margins and totally outplayed Delhi and beat them by nine wickets on Day 4 itself.

There were a lot of performers from the team that had their moment to win their first Ranji Trophy final with Captain Faiz Fazal leading the team from the front by scoring crucial centuries for them. But it was their coach Chandrakant Pandit who led his team to lift their first ever Ranji Trophy.

The Coach after the match stated that his players had the talent to win Ranji Trophy but was lacking self-confidence. “Maybe the culture we have seen in the history of Vidarbha cricket. They have qualified for the knockouts but could not take further steps. I feel that the mindset and belief in them, I felt was more important when I joined them. I always felt that every individual player has talent. But probably they have not been tested in the tough situations. This is where they started learning and believing. So that was the major change. Young players who played with senior and they wanted to win. Probably the self-was not there earlier,” Pandit said.

Pandit is been involved with many teams, earlier he was with Mumbai and now Vidarbha that has led them to win their maiden title. “It never gets easier because it is a prestigious tournament that we always look forward to. Every player, every team wants to hold that cup. So, naturally, the pressure is always there. Anybody cannot say it is easy because once you may taste that but you need to taste more,” he said.

Vidarbha has beaten Delhi to grab their first ever trophy by beating them by nine wickets. Vidarbha took 252 runs lead in the first innings and then rolled out Delhi for 280 runs.

“There was nothing extraordinary but we prepared what the game demands and that is what we were trying to follow. We did a lot of match stimulations, to come into match situations and handle them in the match coming in the season. We gave them the responsibility to handle the challenge. We worked on the skills as well. They were given the tasks and that had to be fulfilled which was out basic aim,” he said.