Rest of India script epic comeback to lift Irani Cup

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.

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.