After clinching the Ranji Trophy for a record 41st time last week, Mumbai came into the game against the Rest of India (RoI) team as favourites for the 2016 Irani Cup. Having won the toss, Mumbai captain Aditya Tare decided to bat first on a batting-friendly wicket at the Brabourne Stadium. Akhil Herwadkar and Jay Bista, who scored 217 in the Col CK Nayudu Trophy final last week, came out to open the batting and proved his skipper right with Bista looking in a hurry to get runs on the board. The right-hander smashed pacer Krishna Das for two boundaries in the third over to kick start his innings and reached his fifty in 49 balls to leave the RoI bowlers scratching their heads.

On the other end, Akhil Herwadkar also looked in great knick after scoring 879 runs in 11 matches in the Ranji Trophy to finish as the second highest run-scorer behind his teammate Shreyas Iyer. RoI skipper Naman Ojha tried all the bowlers at his disposal in search of a wicket but Bista and Herwadkar milked them over after over to race towards a huge first innings score. Bista went past his maiden first-class hundred in the 34th over with a drive off the front foot for three runs. However, his well-made innings ended shortly after with Krishna Das trapping the youngster in front of the stumps.

After scoring 274/3 till the tea break, Mumbai added 112 runs in the last session of play with Suryakumar Yadav and Aditya Tare keeping the run fest going. Yadav remained unbeaten on 88 off 125 balls, while Aditya Tare was not out on 38 off 86 balls at the end of play.