Irani Cup : Rest of India inject life into match with stunning comeback

03/09/2016

The Cup appeared all but decided when Rest of India ended the first innings 300 runs short of Mumbai on day 3. A stunning all-round performance by the team, however, has set up an exciting final day as RoI look to complete an unlikely chase of 380 to win the Cup after dismissing Mumbai for 182.

Brief scores : Mumbai 603 all out in 158.2 overs and 182 all out in 51.2 overs (SD Lad 60, Suryakumar Yadav 49; JJ Yadav 4/93, Unadkat 3/16) lead Rest of India 306 and 100/1 in 37 overs (Fazal 41*, Bharat 42; Abdulla 19/1) by 379 runs

Mumbai started the day with one hand on the trophy as they set about to build on the overnight lead of 299. But Jaydev Unadkat had different plans as he dismissed Shreyas Iyer in the sixth ball of the day for nought – the first duck in Iyer's first-class career. The ball swung to the off stump after pitching at length, and Iyer's lazy attempt to send the ball to midwicket found the fielder directly.

Unfazed, Mumbai went through with the obvious intent of scoring fast as first innings centurion Bista collected 28 runs off 24 balls in the next eight overs. But Unadkat struck again, this time, aided by poor umpiring, though. Bista's prod at a length ball was miles short of the ball, but the umpire obliged a vociferous shout from in front and behind the wicket, and Mumbai were down to 42 for 3.

After Aditya Tare left soon after, the other first innings centurion Suryakumar Yadav and Siddhesh Lad rebuilt the innings before Jayant Yadav removed Suryakumar one short of a half-century. Lad went on with the job collecting 60 runs at a steady pace before he fell as the eighth wicket at 165. The rest of the tail bundled out at 182 to set RoI an impossible target of 480.

Chasing 480, RoI made a fist out of it as they reached 100 for the loss of a sole wicket. The opening pair of Fazal and Bharat took RoI to 66 before Bharat was dismissed by Abdulla. Bharat undid all the good work with a rash sweep at a ball that failed to spin, and could not stop the ball from crashing into the stumps. Fazal continued on with Sudip Chatterjee as the pair safely took RoI to the triple digits without losing any more wickets.

Despite the difficult total, Rest of India have gotten themselves with an outside chance on the final day of the match. With RoI boasting of a formidable line-up, the result hinges on the ability of Mumbai's bowlers to strike in the first session of the day.

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