In the 2024–25 Ranji Trophy final versus Kerala at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur, Karun Nair struck a spectacular century, continuing his outstanding play. As they pursue their third Ranji Trophy championship, Nair put Vidarbha in a solid position with this tonne.
After Kerala’s batting performance, Vidarbha had a narrow 37-run first-innings advantage going into the fourth day of the Ranji Trophy final, owing to a 98 from Sachin Baby. However, Vidarbha was in early danger at 7/2 in their second innings when Dhruv Shorey and Parth Rekhade were removed in the first 14 deliveries. At that point, Nair and Danish Malewar joined forces to help calm the ship, just as they had done in the first innings.
Karun Nair made amends in the second innings after being unlucky enough to be run out at 86 to miss out on a century in the first.
He played carefully through the bowling attack of Kerala, which featured players like MD Nidheesh and Jalaj Saxena.
Nair’s push towards mid-wicket off Saxena’s bowling brought him to his 23rd first-class century after reaching it off 184 balls. His innings enabled Vidarbha to surpass the 200-run threshold in their lead. The 33-year-old batsman has been in outstanding form during the domestic season, scoring over 800 runs this Ranji Trophy campaign and surpassing 8000 first-class runs.
Beginning with a century in Vidarbha’s last league match against Hyderabad, his incredible run continued into the knockout stages, when he was instrumental in the team’s victory over Tamil Nadu. Malewar, on the other hand, contributed 73 of 162 before losing to Akshay Chandran, but the damage was already done.
India
