Harsh Dubey delivered a terrific spell, picking up nine wickets to help Vidarbha bowl out Madhya Pradesh for just 209 runs in the first innings.
Madhya Pradesh chose to bat first at the VCA Stadium, Jamtha, Nagpur, and Dubey opened the bowling. Nachiket Bhute struck first for Vidarbha, dismissing Yash Dubey, before the left-arm spin all-rounder took control. Harsh then picked up wickets at regular intervals and trapped the remaining nine batters with his left-arm spin.
Dubey broke through in the 17th over and kept up the pressure, reducing the opposition to 64-5 in the 29th over. Atharva Mahajan and Saransh Jain then rebuilt the innings with a 72-run partnership before Dubey returned to the attack. He broke the partnership after almost 18 overs and did not allow the lower-order batters to linger, skittling the side for 209.
A record-breaking haul
The figures of 9-53 make Dubey the first-ever bowler from Vidarbha to take a nine-wicket haul in an innings. Arun Ogiral had held the Vidarbha record with his 8-39 in 1967/68, also against Madhya Pradesh.
Overall, Dubey is the 30th bowler to take nine or more wickets in an innings in the Ranji Trophy. Siddharth Desai of Gujarat (9-36 against Uttarakhand in 2024/25) was the last to achieve the feat before him. Earlier in that season, Anshul Kamboj became only the third bowler in Ranji Trophy history to take all ten wickets in an innings, with his 10-49 for Haryana against Kerala, the second-best figures in the competition’s history. That season, Dubey also set a new record for the most wickets (69) in a single edition of the Ranji Trophy.
A memorable 2026 for Dubey
Left-arm spinner Dubey’s nine-wicket haul has made his 2026 even better. He made his ODI debut for India against Afghanistan, taking four wickets in two matches in June. He was then selected in the India A squad for the tour of Sri Lanka, where he took three wickets and scored 59 runs across two innings.
Dubey then featured in the Duleep Trophy for Central Zone, taking eight wickets and scoring 27 and 24 against East Zone. He has made a strong start to the Ranji Trophy 2026/27 season, taking 23 wickets in seven innings so far.