Ageless Jaffer slams ton, Ashwin bowls leg- spin
Nagpur, March 14: Domestic doyen Wasim Jaffer showed his mastery with a 53rd firstclass hundred in Vidarbha’s 289/ 2 against Rest of India on the opening day of the Irani Cup, which witnessed an out- of- sorts Ravichandran Ashwin trying his hand at bowling leg breaks.
The Ranji Trophy champions were hardly bothered by the Rest of India bowlers on a placid Jamtha track as the 40- year- old Jaffer remained unbeaten on 113 off 166 balls with 16 boundaries and a six to his credit. He was as regal in his strokeplay as he has always been, becoming the highest ever run- getter in the history of Irani Cup.
Jaffer, who was appearing in his 242nd firstclass matches, has now played 12 Irani Cup games ( mostly for Mumbai, a few for Rest of India and now for Vidarbha) with over 1000 runs — the tally is more than the top- 5 that includes legends such as G. R. Vishwanath, Dilip Vengsarkar and Sunil Gavaskar.
Ashwin’s figures of 25- 1- 66- 1 won’t tell the story about him being largely ineffective primarily due to lack of assistance from the track. In between, Ashwin tried bowling leg- breaks, but Jaffer and Vidarbha skipper Faiz Fazal ( 89, 190 balls) negotiated him without much difficulty.
There has been insecurity about losing his place to younger wrist spinners in the limited overs set- up, and the more variations that Ashwin tried, the more he looked out of place. The leg- breaks didn’t turn and Jaffer at times would just lean on the back foot and tap it away. When he tried to flight the ball, Jaffer or opener Sanjay Ramaswamy ( 53, 111 balls) would come down the track to negate it.