Atharva Taide's century seals Vidarbha's historic first Vijay Hazare Trophy title 

Vidarbha won their first Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2025/26 [Source: JioHotstar]

Vidarbha locked horns with Saurashtra in the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025/26 at the Centre of Excellence on Sunday, January 18, as they looked to bury the ghosts of last season's final and have their hands on the fifty-over competition title for the first time in their history.

Heading into the match, Vidarbha had knocked out Delhi and the defending champions Karnataka in the quarter-final and semi-final, respectively. On the other hand, Saurashtra had defeated Uttar Pradesh and Punjab in convincing wins to make it a high-quality final to watch out for. As the two-time champions asked Vidarbha to bat first on the big day, here's how the match panned out.

Taide steps up with another big-game century 

Similar to the 143 that Vidarbha opener scored in Irani Cup match against the Rest of India, the left-hand batter once again stepped up in a big match for his team and got two big partnerships upfront after they were put in to bat.

Tournament's leading run-scorer, Aman Mokhade and Taide got a composed 80-run stand, where Mokhade went past the 800-run mark to end the season with 814 runs, becoming only the third player to do so after N Jagadeesan and Prithvi Shaw. He was dismissed for 33(45), and with Dhruv Shorey out injured, Yash Rathod was promoted to 3 to bat with a well-set Taide.

Taide and Rathod stitched a 133 (112) stand for the second wicket to set the team up for a big total. In the process, the opener got to his first List A century after a gap of five years, with a well-made 128(118) with 15 fours and three sixes to his name, before he got out to Ankur Panwar.

Saurashtra pull things back

Rathod, on the other hand, scored his second consecutive fifty in the season, as he tried to carry the momentum but got out for 54(61). Multiple batters got their starts but could not convert them into big scores, as Vidarbha went from 213/1 in 35.5 overs to 317/8 at the end of the innings. Debutant Mohammed Faiz, Harsh Dubey and Darshan Nalkande chipped in with a few boundaries as well.

For Saurashtra, Ankur Panwar was the pick of the bowlers with 4/65 to his name, dismissing both the openers, followed by Faiz and Dubey. Chetan Sakariya got 2/45, and Chirag Jani also scalped 2/65 from their 10 overs each.

Pacers provide early breakthroughs to Vidarbha

Saurashtra suffered early blows in the run chase as Nachiket Bhute and Yash Thakur executed their plans to perfection. The duo got rid of the third-highest scorer of the tournament, Harvik Desai (20), and the semi-final's centurion, Vishvaraj Jadeja (9), respectively and put the opposition under pressure early on.

Coming in as a first-change bowler, backing up his five-wicket haul, Darshan Nalkande sent Gajjar Sammar back for 25(36) when the partnership was building and got Saurashtra 78/3 in 16.1 overs. Bhute struck another blow in a few overs and dismissed Parswaraj Rana for a shaky 7(20) and reduced the batting team to 112/4.

Mankad and Jani fightback not enough for Saurashtra

As the experienced Chirag Jani joined his fellow pace bowling all-rounder Prerak Mankad in the middle, Saurashtra needed a big partnership to stay in the game, and the duo did not disappoint. Before Mankad got dismissed, he added 93(89) for the fifth wicket; however, missed his century by 12 runs. He got 88(92) with 10 fours before he was caught lbw by captain Harsh Dubey.

Jani continued his fight and got past his fifty, while batting alongside the promising Ruchit Ahit, but their efforts were in vain as Vidarbha kept picking wickets at crucial moments and restricted Saurashtra to 279 to win their first-ever Vijay Hazare Trophy title by 39 runs.

On the historic day for Vidarbha cricket, Thakur was the pick of the bowlers with 4/50 (9.5), while Bhute got 3/46(9), and Nalkande finished with two crucial wickets and finished with 2/52 (10).