History was made at the Eden Gardens once again. On paper at least, the Karnataka versus Vidarbha Ranji Trophy semi-final in Kolkata was David trying to square up against a mighty Goliath in many ways.

Karnataka, eight-time champions, have many star-studded names, many of whom have two Ranji Trophy winners’ medals in their cabinet. In Mayank Agarwal, they had a batsman who had scored over 1,000 runs in just 27 days.

In Vinay Kumar, they had one of the all-time domestic greats. Leading from the front with bat and ball, the Karnataka skipper had almost single-handedly fashioned many a win for his state.

Meanwhile, Vidarbha were still pinching themselves to be in stage of the competition, which was exclusively reserved for the domestic big guns such as Mumbai, Delhi and Karnataka. With Wasim Jaffer – in the last leg of his illustrious career – and Umesh Yadav, much of their hopes rested.

Skipper Faiz Fazal’s India career was a non-starter, and was never given another chance despite scoring a fluent half-century in his only One-day International, which was against Zimbabwe.

The mammoth test

Against Karnataka, they could afford no hiccups. And Vinay Kumar and Co were clear favourites, having crushed 41-time champions Mumbai by an innings and 20 runs. The gulf in class was on display in the first innings at Eden Gardens, as Abhimanyu Mithun scalped a five-for to dismiss Vidarbha out for a modest 185.

To add to Fazal’s woes, India’s second international triple-centurion Karun Nair decided to announce his way to the form book with a classy 153. Rajneesh Gurbani, though, sent out enough warning signs in the first innings a five-wicket haul, his side was left with a mountain to climb as Karnataka took a handsome 116-run lead. That too, after slumping to 21/3. Gurbani had taken a five-for against Kerala in the quarter-finals too.

At the time, it seemed as though Vidarbha had let their opportunity slip, and the stage looked set for Delhi (reaching the final after a 10-year gap) and Karnataka were all set to cross swords.

The fightback

When Jaffer made his way back to the pavilion at 62/3, it was Karnataka who were on top; Vidarbha didn’t even have a lead at the time.

Then came the response, and the architect was Ganesh Satish, a Karnataka man himself, who scored a gutsy but crucial 81. While Apoorv Wankhede threw it away after making a fluent 49, Aditya Sarvate’s fifty gave his side a total to fight for, but for that, they needed their bowlers to be at their absolute best. With Umesh Yadav and Gurbani, Vidarbha could dream.

And a dream it was...they had spent much of the fourth day deliriously celebrating the scalp of one big fish after another. While Yadav brought an abrupt halt to Agarwal’s run glut during this season, Gurbani would flatten them with four wickets. At the close of play, Karnataka needed 87 more runs but only three wickets in hand.

No one-man team

The thrilling finale

Karnataka were not going down without a fight. Even after Vinay Kumar departed for a steely 36, there was little panic on display. As it turned out, it was a silly way to throw one’s wicket with the match evenly poised. The Karnataka skipper had already brought up two boundaries in the over. A flashy cut shot only got the outside edge and a safe catch behind the stumps from Akshay Wadkar.

Even then, Abhimanyu Mithun and Shreyas Gopal calmly went about with the chase. The former was finding boundaries at will and Gopal, whose batting prowess came to the fore recently, played the waiting game, and stitched a crucial 48-run stand for the tenth wicket.

Delight soon turned into despair and Gurbani was handed the ball. In the space of 10 balls, Mithun and Aravind made their way to the pavilion. Vidarbha’s man with the golden arm had picked up 12 in the match to create history for his side. If prodded, Gurbani would perhaps say that it was an easier task than juggling engineering and cricket practice, as was the case not so long ago. Be warned, Delhi!