After a tough loss last year, Vidarbha’s coach Usman Ghani was thrilled to win the Ranji Trophy, a big cricket competition, on Sunday, March 02, 2025. His team beat Kerala at the VCA Stadium by doing better in the first part of the game, called the first innings.
“It has indeed been a dream to hold this magnificent trophy,” Ghani said. “We missed it by a whisker last year.” By “whisker,” he meant they came super close to winning but didn’t. This time, they got it!
Ghani explained that the team started getting ready right after last year’s loss. They worked hard to get better, especially at hitting the ball, which is called batting. “We really worked hard on our batting,” he said. “We didn’t depend on individuals, and everyone contributed.” This means no single player had to do everything—everyone helped out.
Some young players stood out. Danish Malewar and Yash Rathod, two batters, did an awesome job. “I had a lot of faith in Danish and asked the selectors to play him in the eleven,” Ghani said. The “eleven” is the group of players picked to play in the game. He added that Danish had already done well with a younger team and was ready for the big leagues. As for Yash, Ghani called him “matured” and “skilful,” meaning he’s smart and talented. Yash scored the most runs in the whole Ranji Trophy this season, which is a huge deal for the team.
Another star was Harsh Dubey, who got the most wickets—69 of them! In cricket, a wicket is when you get a batter out. Harsh broke a record for the most wickets in a Ranji season. “He has a lot of self-belief, which is very important,” Ghani said. Harsh also helped by batting well.
The game had a surprising start. Kerala won the coin toss (a way to decide who goes first) and chose to let Vidarbha bat. Ghani was happy about this. “We wanted to bat first in a pressure game like this,” he said. “We knew it was a batting wicket though it could be difficult in the first hour because of the moisture.” A “batting wicket” means the field was good for hitting the ball, and “moisture” means the ground was a little wet, making it tricky at first. Vidarbha was glad Kerala made that choice.
Ghani also honored the team’s captain, Akshay Wadkar, who is retiring, meaning he’s done playing cricket for good. “He has been a great servant of Vidarbha cricket,” Ghani said. “It was only on the morning of the match that he told us that he was going to retire.” This was a big surprise, but Ghani praised him for all his hard work over the years.
In short, Vidarbha won because the whole team worked together, young players stepped up, and they made the most of their chances. It was a dream come true for Coach Ghani and his squad!
