Vidarbha did it! What a victory! This day reminds me of Kapil Dev lifting the 1983 World cup in England: the Vidarbha team was as much an underdog as the Indian team was in 1983. Thirty-five years ago, a bunch of Indian players took over the mighty West Indian team and made history by defeating the undefeatable.
The underdog Team Vidarbha went past Punjab, Bengal, Services, Kerala, and Karnataka and finally had a crack at the title when it met Delhi—the seven-time winner—into a final that no one expected it to win. The team managed to do the unthinkable and scripted a victory to lift the Ranji Trophy!
Vidarbha first played first class cricket in 1957—the year I was born—and I had to wait for almost six decades to see Vidarbha create history. Call it a fairy-tale ending or an unexpected New Year gift—today cricket lovers from all over Vidarbha are mightily delighted!