Rest of India thump Mumbai to win Irani Cup
Yuvraj Singh’s double century and R Ashwin’s five-wicket haul in the second innings ensured that the Rest of India beat Mumbai in the Irani Trophy match at Jaipur. Chasing a mammoth total of 782 for a
win, the Mumbai side was bowled out for 420 on the last day of the game with only two overs to spare.
The Rest of India had won the toss and decided to bat on a flat-looking track at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur. Abhinav Mukund and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shikhar-Dhawan-c90019 were involved in a huge first wicket partnership before
S Badrinath joined in and ensured that the Rest of India ended the first day on 331/1.
Any recovery that the Mumbai side would have had from here would have been difficult, but three quick wickets of Badrinath, Mukund and the captain Yuvraj Singh meant that the Rest of India were suddenly 367/4
and no longer looking invincible. Yuvraj, who was dropped from the Indian Test team and asked to regain his form, scored only four and continued to struggle against the ball, which showed plenty of movement.
However, the Rest of India were rescued by the pair of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rest-of-India-c838 got their total to 668. Ashwin batted at the number
eight position to score 73.
Faced with the challenge of batting through the rest of the three days to overhaul the score of 668, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mumbai-c820 ended the second day without loss but were in immediate trouble on the third day when they lost
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Jaidev-Unadkat-c1626 triggered a collapse and got the Mumbai team bowled out for a paltry 274.
The rules in the Irani Trophy specify that in case of a drawn game the team with the first innings lead wins the trophy and in this case, the Rest of India had got a huge lead. Instead of trying to inflict
a defeat on to the Mumbai team, the Rest of India skipper decided to bat again. Yuvraj also promoted himself up the order and smacked a 194-ball 204 as Rest of India got to 387/3 before calling the innings off.
Mumbai were left to score a near-800 runs but the more realistic target for them was to avoid the ignominy of the defeat. Unfortunately Ashwin and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Piyush-c82317 Chawla shared nine wickets between them to bowl Mumbai
out for 420 and win the trophy.
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