Irani Cup: Team Rest of India continued their domination in the Irani Cup 2022/23 after they registered their 30th title win in the Indian domestic tournament on Sunday. The ROI side defeated Madhya Pradesh in the final of the tournament to win by 238 runs. For his brilliant batting across both innings, Yashasvi Jaiswal has been adjudged the Player of the match. He smashed a double ton and a ton in both innings.
The ROI side were the defending champions of the Irani Cup, having won the last time in 2019-20. They faced the winners of Ranji Trophy Madhya Pradesh in the finale, which started on March 1. Having won the toss and deciding to bat first, the ROI team registered a big score of 484 at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium, Gwalior. In reply, Madhya Pradesh could only manage to amass 294 runs from their first innings. With a big lead in the second innings, ROI piled up more runs to set a daunting target of 437 runs. The MP side was then bowled out for just 198.
In the first innings, Jaiswal and Abhimanyu Easwaran starred with the bat for ROI as they built up a second-wicket partnership of 371 runs after the fall of captain Mayank Agarwal when the team was at 7. While Easwaran scored 154, Jaiswal went on to smash 213. Feeding off from the big tons from the two batters was middle order batter Yash Dhull, who hit a fifty to take the team to 484. For MP, Avesh Khan found some success as he picked four wickets.
Coming out to bat, MP were jolted by initial blows from Navdeep Saini and Mukesh Kumar. After reeling down at 15/3, MP staged a comeback with the help of a 114-run stand between Harsh Gawli and Yash Dubey. But Saini bowled Gawli to break the stand. Dubey continued his performance for a bit longer and hit 109 before Pulkit Narang bowled him when the team was at 241. Despite a fight from half-centurion Saransh Jain, the team got bowled out for 294, with Pulkit Narang being the pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets.
In the second phase, Agarwal was yet again sent back early but Jaiswal walked in at No.3 to calm things yet again as he hit another ton. Even though the others fell at regular intervals, he proved out to be the game-changer with a 144-run knock, that took his team to 246. MP faced the huge task of chasing a 437-run target. A small fight from captain Himanshu Mantri and Harsh Gawli was not enough. Mantri scored 51, while Gwali fell two short of his 50 as MP kept losing wickets on the final day of the match on March 5. Saurabh Kumar and Pulkit Narang cleaned the lower middle order and tail of the reigning Ranji champions to register a big win on Day 5.
