Harsh Dubey produced a terrific spell, taking 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. Nachiket Bhute struck first for Vidarbha, dismissing Yash Dubey. Left-arm spin all-rounder Harsh Dubey then took control, picking up wickets at regular intervals and trapping the remaining nine batters with his left-arm spin.
Dubey broke through in the 17th over and kept his momentum going, 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 that stand after almost 18 overs and did not let the lower order linger, skittling Madhya Pradesh for 209. He finished with nine wickets for just 53 runs.
The haul is a Vidarbha first. Arun Ogiral previously held the franchise’s best figures, taking 8-39 against Madhya Pradesh in 1967/68. Overall, Dubey becomes the 30th bowler to take nine or more wickets in an innings in the Ranji Trophy.
Recent Ranji Trophy milestones
Siddharth Desai of Gujarat took 9-36 against Uttarakhand in 2024/25, the last nine-wicket haul in the competition before Dubey’s. Earlier that season, Anshul Kamboj made history for Haryana by taking all ten wickets in an innings. Only the third bowler in Ranji Trophy history to do so, his 10-49 against Kerala are the second-best figures in the competition’s history. That season, Dubey set a new record for most wickets (69) in a single edition of the Ranji Trophy.
A memorable 2026 for Dubey
Today’s nine-wicket haul against Madhya Pradesh has made Dubey’s 2026 even better. The left-arm spinner made his ODI debut for India against Afghanistan in June, taking four wickets in two matches. He then joined the India A squad for the tour of Sri Lanka, where he took three wickets and scored 59 runs across two innings.
Dubey went on to play for Central Zone in the Duleep Trophy, where he took eight wickets and scored 27 and 24 against East Zone. He has also started the Ranji Trophy 2026/27 season in style, taking 23 wickets in seven innings so far.