Vidarbha vs Saurashtra, Final, Vijay Hazare Trophy Elite 2025-26 - Commentary

Harsh Dubey collects the trophy and hoists it over his shoulder, carrying it across to his teammates waiting behind the CHAMPIONS board. Remember, this side are also the reigning Ranji Trophy holders, and they’ve now added the Vijay Hazare Trophy to their cabinet. That makes this victory even sweeter, and you can be sure the celebrations will last a little longer. That’s a wrap of our live coverage. There’s plenty of cricket coming up and you can catch it all right here. Until next time, goodbye and stay safe..

Harsh Dubey: The hard work from the last month and today's result, it is a very good feeling. We had a good eye opener in the first game - we put up a good total but still lost. We thought we could improve our bowling, we did that from the next game on and that is the result you see today. The number of matches you play as a spinner you improve, I played the IPL and India A, that helped me improve my game. Yash (Rathod) had opened in the first three games, but we wanted an extra batter, so Taide started to open, today he had the belief that he would to do the job at number 3. I keep saying we have India's best bowling unit and they proved me right today. We planned better after the first game, and if the execution is perfect then the result will be in our favour.

Aman Mokhade | Player of the Series: I always had the belief that I would win games for my team and that belief kept me going. There's a lot of competition in our team, I had to wait for my opportunity, I had to channelise that frustration on the field and the results are there to see. (on his hundred in the semifinal) We lost to Karnataka last year, so I had to take responsibility this year and perform against them. Feeling is very grateful. Our bunch is such that we were confident of lifting the trophy from day one.

Atharva Taide | Player of the Match: Final is such a moment where the world watches. My mindset has been how can I give my best in the big games. After dominating U-16 and U-19, there was a small tweak in my game which I worked on thanks to my seniors and the coaching staff. Shorey, who has been one of our best batters, was unavailable today and the responsibility was on my shoulders to bat deep, at least till the 45th over and though I could not do that, there was a good platform set. We spoke about giving everything and not leaving anything for this game, we didn't want a repeat of last year because we know that feeling (of losing a final).

Harvik Desai: We played some really good cricket right through the tournament. Our batting didn't click today but we played some good cricket. We performed well in crunch situations, our bowling group did well after the first couple of games, the batters were consistent. We started well, but allowed them to get away, our bowlers pulled it back towards the end. With the bat, we lost a couple of wickets in the powerplay, but came back well to stay in the chase but unfortunately we couldn't finish it off. We are playing good cricket through the season, if we can keep up the consistency then we would do well.

21:53 Local Time, 16:23 GMT: They say runs on the board in a big final are often decisive, and that proved true once again. Vidarbha were put in to bat and, riding on Atharva Taide’s superb hundred and his 133-run partnership with Yash Rathod, posted an imposing 317. With the ball, Vidarbha made early inroads as the new-ball pair of Yash Thakur and Nachiket Bhute struck quickly to remove the openers. Prerak Mankad then held one end together despite wickets tumbling at the other, before Chirag Jani joined him and injected some momentum into the chase. While that partnership lasted, Saurashtra still had hope. However, the turning point came when Dubey broke the stand by dismissing Mankad for a well-made 88. Jani fought on, but he too ran out of steam and was dismissed in the 45th over. From there, it was only a matter of time. It was a collective bowling effort. The three pacers - Thakur, Bhute, and Nalkande - shared nine wickets between them, while the spinners Dubey and Rekhade also played their part, ensuring Vidarbha closed out a historic win in style.

Yash Thakur to Sakariya, THATS OUT!! Lbw!!

Vidrabha review! It is a shout for LBW Thakur was confident. But the umpire does not oblige. Dubey sends it upstairs. Sakariya had shuffled a long way. The impact is not a problem. Nothing on UltraEdge. Ball-tracking shows it to be hitting leg-stump. OUT

Nachiket Bhute to Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, THATS OUT!! Caught!!