Irani Cup: Rest of India crush Madhya Pradesh to retain title

Gwalior, March 5

Rest of India’s bowling unit performed like a well-oiled machine as the team thrashed Madhya Pradesh by 238 runs to retain the Irani Cup here today.

Chasing 437 for victory, Madhya Pradesh were bowled out for 198 in 58.4 overs as the match ended during the opening session of the fifth day.

Very happy for the kind of cricket we played. There was good intent and intensity. The stand between Yashaswi (Jaiswal) and (Abhimanyu) Easwaran made the difference. Happy with the way (Navdeep) Saini’s evolved as a bowler and he led the attack well. Getting the guys together for one game is the major challenge. You’ve got to take these one-off games in your stride and move on. Mayank Agarwal, Rest of India Captain

Seamers Mukesh Kumar (2/34), Atit Sheth (2/37) and Navdeep Saini (1/34) blew away the Madhya Pradesh top-order while off-spinner Pulkit Narang (2/27) and left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar (3/60) took advantage of the deteriorating surface to mop up the rest.

In the morning, MP skipper Himanshu Mantri (51) got a raw deal from umpire Rohan Pandit, who raised his finger even though the batter hadn’t nicked the ball to the wicketkeeper.

MP lost wickets at regular intervals as the first-innings’ centurion Yash Dubey got a lethal in-cutter from Mukesh and was cleaned up in the process. There was no let-up in intensity from the Rest of India bowlers.

For the RoI team, made up mainly of India A players, Yashasvi Jaiswal was the showstopper with 357 runs (213 and 144). The 21-year-old was named the Player of the Match.

Brief scores: Rest of India 484 (Jaiswal 213, Easwaran 154; Avesh 4/74) & 246 (Jaiswal 144; Shubham 2/9); Madhya Pradesh 294 (Dubey 109; Narang 4/65) & 198 (Mantri 51; Saurabh 3/60).