Ranji Trophy final: Nair ton puts Vidarbha in command

The 33-year-old scored his fourth century of the current Ranji season to put the two-time winners in the driver's seat

- HTC & Agencies

NAGPUR: He fell short of a hundred in the first innings but Karun Nair more than made up for that miss on Saturday that propelled Vidarbha to a position of command with an overall lead of 286 runs at stumps on Day 4 of their Ranji Trophy final against Kerala here.

At stumps, Nair was unbeaten on 132 with captain Akshay Wadkar on 4.

This was Nair's fourth century of the Ranji Trophy season—and ninth overall, including five tons in the Vijay Hazare Trophy—pushing Vidarbha to the cusp of their third Ranji Trophy title.

And given the context of the hundred, it won't be lost on Kerala anytime soon that they had failed to offer a professional contract to Nair when Karnataka had given up on him. With only a day's play left now, Nair has all but shut the door on Kerala.

A dropped regulation catch in the 19th over of the day ended up having a huge impact on the innings as Nair went on to score another quality hundred, one that defied Kerala's effort nearly all day.