Nagpur may be the geographical center of India and host venue Civil Lines stadium located at the heart of the city, but it’s not the Vidarbha-Madhya Pradesh Ranji trophy semi-final which will hold center-stage.
There will be much greater focus on the Mumbai-Tamil Nadu clash, featuring Shreyas Iyer, in his first domestic outing after losing his India contract.
However, that will not discourage either Vidarbha or Madhya Pradesh, who have made a habit of finding tournament-success without stars or attention. In the past five years, three Ranji titles have been won between these two teams – Vidarbha won back-to-back in 2017-18 and 18-19 and MP in 2021-22. Behind each of these victories, there was one master mind – Chandrakant Pandit, the most successful head coach on the Ranji circuit.
“Any team in the knockout round has to be a good team. I only have to remind my players of the change in mindset and that there are no second chances here. It will be a good battle,”
All the four semi-finalists being table toppers of the league phase is a fair reflection of the strength of the competing pool. While Vidarbha had a more comfortable win in the quarter-finals against Karnataka – they bowled the opposition out on the final day and won by 127 runs, MP came through against Andhra with the barest of margins – 4 runs.
In MP’s close win, pacer Anubhav Agarwal, who claimed six wickets in the final innings, came out an unlikely hero amongst other bowlers who had India, India A and IPL experience. Identifying heroes for pressure moments has been one of Pandit’s strong suits.