After his record-breaking double hundred in the first innings, Sarfaraz Khan went back unbeaten on Day 4 of the Irani Cup fixture between Mumbai and the Rest of India as the game sits on a knife's edge. After ending Abhimanyu Easwaran and Dhruv Jurel's brilliant knocks, Mumbai collapsed to the off-spin of Saransh Jain as the fixture is set for a mouthwatering finish. The reigning Ranji Trophy champions went back to stumps at 153/6 with a lead of 274 and Sarfaraz Khan and Tanush Kotian unbeaten.
Mumbai took a big lead of 121 after bowling ROI out for 416 in the first innings. They rubbed salt into ROI's wounds when they started on a positive note as Prithvi Shaw scored a fiery fifty. But the Ranji Trophy champions conceded their huge advantage and fell in quick succession. From being 85/1, they found themselves at 125/6 with Saransh Jain doing the major damage.
The pitch is helping the spinners and Saransh took the rewards from it by taking four of the top six batters out. While Shaw made 76 from 105, the rest of the batters could not get a notable score. Sarfaraz and Tanush are unbeaten at the crease with the former batting on nine and the latter on 20 as they hold the key for Mumbai to take their lead up. While the off-spinner Saransh took four, left-arm spinner Manav Suthar bagged two as well.
The day started with Easwaran continuing from his overnight score of 151 and Jurel partnering him from his 30. The new ball was taken one ball after it became available but it did not trouble the batters. The two kept scoring freely and partnered each other for a 165-run stand for the fifth wicket. They came close to Mumbai's first-innings score but after the departure of Jurel, who missed a century by seven runs, Mumbai lost steam. Easwaran fell for 191 and the Ruturaj Gaikwad-led team lost the final six wickets for 23 runs.
Mumbai's Playing XI:
Prithvi Shaw, Ayush Mhatre, Shreyas Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Sarfaraz Khan, Hardik Tamore (wk), Shardul Thakur, Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Mohit Avasthi, M Juned Khan
Rest of India's Playing XI:
Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Devdutt Padikkal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sai Sudharsan, Ishan Kishan, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Manav Suthar, Saransh Jain, Yash Dayal, Prasidh Krishna, Mukesh Kumar
