File photo of Shreyas Iyer.
Skipper Shreyas Iyer's fluent 116 and an impressive show by India speedster Shardul Thakur powered Mumbai to a 67-run win over Rajasthan in an Elite Group D game of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Saturday.
This was Mumbai's fourth successive win, having earlier defeated Delhi, Maharashtra and Puducherry.
Opting to bat at the KL Saini stadium, Mumbai rode on Iyer's 103-ball knock to post a competitive 317/7. The elegant right-handed batsman led from the front before his bowlers bundled out the opposition for 250 with Thakur (4/50) doing the bulk of the damage.
Mumbai openers -- young Yashasvi Jaiswal (38) and Prithvi Shaw (36) -- gave the domestic giants a strong start, adding 71 for the first wicket. But Rajasthan pegged back Mumbai by removing both the openers in quick succession as they slipped to 83/2.
Iyer anchored the innings before toying with the Rajasthan attack, scoring his second century of the tournament with the help of 11 fours and three sixes.
He found able partners in Sarfaraz Khan (30) and Suryakumar Yadav (29), who played their roles to perfection.
Iyer added 96 for the third wicket with Sarfaraz and then forged a 56-run stand with Suryakumar for the fourth wicket to put the hosts on the back foot.
After Iyer was cleaned up in the 46th over by Ravi Bishnoi, all-rounder Akash Parkar made an unbeaten 24 off 15 balls, to prop up Mumbai.
For Rajasthan, left-arm spinner Shubham Sharma (3/59) did the bulk of the damage.
Chasing 318, Rajasthan lost opener Yash Kothari (2) and skipper Ashok Menaria (20) early and were struggling at 32/2.
Manender Singh (40) and Mahipal Lomror (76) tried to take the game deep with their 101-run third-wicket stand, but medium pacer Akash Parkar broke the partnership after trapping Singh in front of the wicket.
Shardul castled Lomror to leave Rajasthan at 160/4.
From thereon, it was an uphill task for Rajasthan and they were eventually bowled out for 250.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai 317/7 (Shreyas Iyer 116, Yashasvi Jaiswal 38; Shubham Sharma 3/59, Abhimanyu Lamba 2/66) beat Rajasthan 250 (Mahipal Lomror 76, M Singh 40; Shardul Thakur 4/50; Dhawal Kulkarni 3/26) by 67 runs.
At Sawai Mansingh Stadium: Maharashtra 328/7 (Azim Kazi 91, Kedar Jadhav 86; Lalit Yadav 3/69, Pradeep Sangwan 2/61) lost to Delhi 330/7 (Shikhar Dhawan 153, Dhruv Shorey; Satyajeet Bachhav 3/68) by three wickets.
At Jaipuria Vidhyalaya ground: Puducherry 227/9 (Sheldon Jackson 104, Sagar Trivedi 51; Rishi Dhawan 4/44, Pankaj Jaswal 2/23) beat Himachal 123 (Abhimanyu Rana 27; Sagar Udeshi 4/35, Kannan Vignesh 3/30) by 104 runs.
