Irani Cup: Mumbai in total control

MUMBAI: Despite losing Akhil Herwadkar’s wicket early in the second innings on Tuesday, Mumbai took complete control of their Irani Cup match against the Rest of India side after bundling them out for 306 runs, thereby ensuring a first innings lead of 297 runs.

Mumbai had dominated the first two days of play and Tuesday was no different as the accomplished ROI batsmen threw away their wickets cheaply, with the exception of Karnataka’s Karun Nair (94 runs) and Haryana’s Jayant Yadav (46). Jaydev Unadkat also scored a gritty 48 to give his side some respite in what has been a one-sided match at the Brabourne Stadium. Ankit Rajpoot, who had injured his left knee while fielding on Sunday, did not come out to bat.

Mumbai chose not to enforce follow-on after considering that their bowlers had bowled almost 100 overs. At the end of day’s play, Mumbai had scored two runs for the loss of a wicket to secure a lead of 299 runs.

“We bowled around 100 overs today so it’s better to try and get some runs on the board now. The ball might start turning even more in the fourth innings. So we chose not to enforce follow-on,” Abhishek Nayar said at the end of day’s play.

After the ROI bowlers struggled, allowing all Mumbai’s top six batsmen had notch up scores over 50, Mumbai’s bowlers showed immaculate discipline to bowl out their opponents. They were also helped by some inspired fielding, such as Siddhesh Lad’s reflexive catch at shortish cover to send back ROI’s skipper Naman Ojha for just two runs. Among the Mumbai bowlers, Abhishek Nayar returned with figures of 3-35 while Iqbal Abdulla (2-62), Jay Bista (2-52), Dhawal Kulkarni (1-43) and Shardul Thakur (1-61) were also among the wickets.