Champs donate prize to martyrs’ family

Nagpur, Feb. 16: A clinical Ranji champions Vidarbha reasserted their supremacy in domestic arena, beating a star-studded Rest of India to retain the Irani Cup, making it back-to-back seasons of double delight. Vidarbha have now become the third team after Mumbai and Karnataka to clinch two Irani Cup titles in a row. And in a touching gesture, Vidarbha captain Faiz Fazal announced that the entire prize money will be donated to the families of the CRPF personnel martyred in the dastardly terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama on Thursday. “We as a team have decided to donate the prize money to the family of the martyrs who lost their lives in Pulwama. This is a small gesture from our team and VCA,” Fazal said.

Set a tricky target of 280, Vidarbha were well and truly on course at 269 for five, needing only 11 runs for an outright victory. However the two teams decided to shake hands and settle for a draw. The victory was a testimony to Vidarbha's teamwork as they defeated a Rest of India side comprising Ajinkya Rahane, Hanma Vihari.

Shreyas Iyer and Mayank Agarwal without their season's top scorer Wasim Jaffer and pacer Umesh Yadav. It was another senior Ganesh Satish (87 off 168 balls) and young U-19 international Atharva Taide (72 off 185 balls), who ensured that the Cup will remain in the Vidarbha Cricjket Association's Trophy cabinet.

Also others like opener Sanjay Ramaswamy (42) and Mohit Kale (37) chipped in with handy knocks, while wicketkeeper Akshay Wadkar remained unbeaten on 10. And their skipper Faiz Fazal would certainly be pleased with the fact that his boys nearly pulled off an outright win chasing a near 300-score on a fifth day track. Resuming their innings on 37/1, Ramaswamy and one down Taide added 116 runs for the second wicket.