The pace duo of Aditya Thakare and Yash Thakur battered the Madhya Pradesh lower order as Vidarbha won this semi-final clash by 62 runs at the Civil Lines Stadium in Nagpur on Wednesday to set up a Ranji Trophy final clash with Mumbai.

Mumbai, 41-time champions, will have to overcome the Vidarbha obstacle in the final at the Wankhede from Sunday for their 42nd Ranji crown.

Madhya Pradesh, who were in a precarious position at stumps on Day IV at 228/6 and requiring 93 more runs to win, withered in the face of hostile bowling from the duo who shared the spoils in the first session of the final day to earn Vidarbha a memorable semi-final win.

Madhya Pradesh were eventually bundled out for 258 in 81.3 overs as their hopes of entering the final for the third time in the premier domestic tournament were dashed. For Vidarbha, this is their third entry into the Ranji final. On both the occasions in the past, they won the title, defeating Delhi (2017-18) and Saurashtra (2018-19).

Chasing a target of 321 for victory, Madhya Pradesh, the 2021-22 Ranji champions, were still not completely out of the game despite losing six wickets. But Thakare and Thakur were on song on the final day, with the early morning freshness of the wicket helping them extract a fair bit of bounce and movement.

Overnight batsman Kumar Kartikeya, who had just taken guard when the stumps were called on Tuesday, fell for nought, cleaned up by Thakare after facing just four balls.

Anubhav Agarwal was the next to depart, clean bowled for a duck again by Thakare with Madhya Pradesh tottering at 234/8 and starting at a defeat.

Saransh Jain tried to keep the innings alive, but could add just nine runs to his overnight score of 16 before Thakur cleaned him up.

Brief scores: Vidarbha 170 & 402. Madhya Pradesh 252 & 258 (Aditya Thakare 2/45, Yash Thakur 3/60). Vidarbha won by 62 runs.