Abhimanyu Easwaran scored a brilliant century to help the Rest of India fight back against Mumbai's huge first innings total on Day 3 of the Irani Cup 2024 fixture in Lucknow on Thursday. Replying to Mumbai's 537, Rest of India managed to post a total of 289 for 4 at the end of the day's play at Ekana Cricket Stadium with Easwaran scoring unbeaten 151 runs.
Sarfaraz Khan remained unbeaten on 222 as Mumbai lost their last wicket after adding just one run to their massive total on Day 3. Mukesh Kumar completed his five-wicket haul to continue his excellent run of form since being dropped from India's Test squad.
Rest of India started their first innings with captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and in-form Easwaran adding 40 runs for the first wicket. Mohammed June Khan gave Mumbai a breakthrough with Gaikwad's big wicket who scored just 9 runs off 27 balls.
But Easwaran continued his red-hot form in domestic cricket with another memorable innings. Easwaran and Sai Sudharsan staged Rest of India's fightback with an 83-run stand for the second wicket. Sudharsan seemed in good rhythm for a big innings but was dismissed by spinner Tanush Kotian on 32 runs.
Easwaran kept the runs flowing from the one end to bring his 36th First-Class century and his fourth in his last five red-ball cricket games. In-form Karnataka batter Devdutt Padikkal, who made his Test debut earlier this year, scored just 16 runs after an impressive run in the recent Duleep Trophy games.
Ishan Kishan was sent ahead of Dhruv Jurel to bat in the no.5 position and the wicketkeeper batter showed some glimpses of returning to form by scoring 38 runs off 60 balls. The experienced pacer Mohit Avasthi dismissed both Ishan and Padikkal to give Mumbai the upper hand but Rest of India managed to make another comeback in the last session.
Easwaran and Jurel added unbeaten 61 runs for the fifth wicket with the former scoring brilliant 151* off 212 balls with the help of 12 fours and one six. With just two more day's play remaining, the team finishing with the most runs in the first innings is likely to claim the Iani Cup 2024 title.
