Rest of India script epic comeback to lift Irani Cup

Rest of India script epic comeback to lift Irani Cup

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Image Courtesy: © Facebook - Faiz Fazal

Led by Faiz Fazal and Karun Nair, Rest of India chased down the near-impossible target of 480 to clinch the 82nd Irani Cup defeating Mumbai by four wickets. Putting behind a 1st innings deficit of 297, RoI bowlers had bundled out Mumbai for 182 before the batsmen stepped up to complete the comeback.

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) lost to Rest of India 306 and 482/6 in 129.4 overs (Fazal 127, Karun Nair 92; Abdulla 5/154) by four wickets 

After finishing the penultimate day at 100/1, Rest of India started day 5 cautiously with Faiz Fazal and Sudip Chatterjee scoring just over three runs an over. After negotiating the initial spells from pacers Sandhu, Kulkarni and Thakur, Rest of India looked in a comfortable position with Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare opting for a spin attack from Iqbal Abdulla and Jay Bista. But, RoI suffered their first blow of the day in the 62nd over after Abdulla took a breathtaking return catch to remove Sudip Chatterjee.

Karun Nair came out next and continued his innings from where he had left off in the first innings by scoring almost run-a-ball to take his team to lunch needing 269 runs for a victory. After the break, Fazal continued his focused innings and went past the century mark to pile the misery on the Mumbai players. With Nair and Fazal having a field day at the crease, Aditya Tare turned to part-timers in search of a wicket. Seeing his chance, Nair jumped in and milked Shreyas Iyer and Jay Bista to take his team past 300.

But, Abdulla once again struck in quick succession to remove centurion Fazal and Karun Nair to open a window of opportunity for Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai. With Abdulla bowling balls down the leg side or wide on off side to stop the run flow, Fazal jumped out of his crease in search of connecting one, but edged it back to Tare to walk back to the pavilion. Karun Nair followed him shortly after falling in the 90s for the second time in the match. A tossed up delivery on the leg side got big on Nair and his attempted sweep saw him nicking to Iyer at short leg for an easy catch.

Skipper Naman Ojha also fell with RoI 128 runs away from a victory after trying to steal a quick single. Herwadkar ran across to backward point and brought the stumps down with a direct hit to put RoI at 353/5. Needing 128 runs, Stuart Binny and Sheldon Jackson took on the bowlers in the last thirty overs in search of a historic win. Binny smashed two sixes and three boundaries in his knock of 52 off 51 balls, while Jackson score 59 off 76 balls to take the team over the line. Binny departed 35 runs away from the victory as Iqbal Abdullah completed his five-wicket-haul after the Karnataka all-rounder top-edged one for a simple catch to Jay Bista. Jayant Yadav and Jackson accumulated the rest of the runs and successfully completed the biggest chase in the history of Irani Cup to lift the trophy.

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