Irani Cup 2024-25, Day 4: Rest of India faces an uphill battle after Mumbai extends lead to 274 runs

With a solid lead of 274 runs, including the 121-run advantage it gained in the first essay, Mumbai appears to be the team in control against Rest of India.

Rest of India’s Abhimanyu Easwaran dismissed off Shams Mulani of Mumbai in the Irani Trophy. | Photo Credit: SANDEEP SAXENA

The beauty of a five-day cricket match between two quality sides was on full display. After being made to toil for the first three days, the spin twins from each of the sides made optimum use of a wearing surface at the Bharat Ratna Shree Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium to ensure that the last day’s play of the Irani Cup game between Ranji Trophy champion Mumbai and Rest of India will be far from being a formality.

Twelve wickets fell on Friday, the penultimate day of the game – two less than the combined tally over the first three days – with the spinners snaring 11 of them (the other was a run-out). With a solid lead of 274 runs, including the 121-run advantage it gained in the first essay, Mumbai appears to be the team in control.

With an uneven bounce and vicious turn for an odd ball being a regular phenomenon on a pitch with multiple roughs, Prithvi Shaw’s aggressive fifty (76, 105b, 8x4, 1x6) ensured Mumbai continued to take the game away from RoI. But a change of angle to around-the-wicket worked wonders for Saransh Jain, the offie, who bowled a dream ball that held its line and crashed into the off-stump. Two balls later, Shams Mulani was cleaned up after shouldering the ball.

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RoI will hope to wipe out Mumbai early on the fifth morning and let the batters go for the kill with a “nothing-to-lose” mindset. The RoI spinners can take a cue from how Mumbai folded up the RoI innings in no time after Abhimanyu Easwaran and Dhruv Jurel started the morning off on a solid note. The duo batted without any hassle, even when Mohit Avasthi and Shardul Thakur shared the new ball.

With less than half an hour approaching for the lunch break, both the batters had neared their personal milestones. While Jurel – whose drives were a treat to watch – had raced into the 90s, Abhimanyu had entered the 190s. Mulani changed the angle and came over the wicket and was rewarded immediately with Jurel’s sweep resulting in a bottom edge to wicketkeeper Hardik Tamore.

In his next over, Mulani continued to bowl in the rough and Abhimanyu top-edged a sweep for Kotian to rush in from short fine-leg to accept the catch. Kotian then wiped the tail off as RoI lost its last six wickets for 23 runs.

The scoreboard

Mumbai – 1st innings: 537

Rest of India – 1st innings

Ruturaj Gaikwad c Shaw b Juned 9, Abhimanyu Easwaran c Kotian b Mulani 191, B. Sai Sudharsan lbw b Kotian 32, Devdutt c Tamore b Avasthi 16, Ishan Kishan c Tamore b Avasthi 38, Dhruv Jurel c Tamore b Mulani 93, Manav Suthar b Mulani 6, Saransh Jain (not out) 9, Yash Dayal (run out) 6, M. Prasidh Krishna c Sarfaraz b Kotian 0, Mukesh Kumar c & b Kotian 0; Extras (lb-9, nb-7): 16; Total (All out in 110 overs): 416 Fall of wickets: 1-40, 2-127, 3-158, 4-228, 5-393, 6-396, 7-405, 8-416, 9-416.

Mumbai bowling: Avasthi 22-1-97-2, Juned 17-0-70-1, Mulani 40-4-122-3, Kotian 27-2-101-3, Thakur 4-0-17-0.

Mumbai – 2nd innings

Prithvi Shaw b Jain 76, Ayush Mhatre st Jurel b Jain 14, Hardik Tamore c Jurel b Suthar 7, Ajinkya Rahane lbw b Suthar 9, Shreyas Iyer b Jain 8, Shreyas Iyer b Jain 8, Sarfaraz Khan (batting) 9, Shams Mulani b Jain 0, Tanush Kotian (batting) 20; Total (b-4, lb-2, nb-2, w-2) 10; Total (for six wkts. in 40 overs): 153

Fall of wickets: 1-52, 2-85, 3-106, 4-115, 5-125, 6-125.

Rest of India bowling: Mukesh 3-0-25-0, Prasidh 2-0-15-0, Jain 18-3-67-4, Suthar 17-1-40-2.