Vidarbha’s bowling unit proved too strong for the Rest of India, as they won the Irani Cup by 93 runs in Nagpur on Sunday, despite Yash Dhull smashing his way to 92. In the second session of the fifth day, left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey (4/73) and pacer Yash Thakur (2/47) did the majority of the damage as Rest of India was all out for 267 while chasing a target of 361.
Vidarbha have now played three Irani Cup matches — and won all three. Credit goes to Harsh Dubey and Yash Thakur, who claimed six wickets each and were instrumental in accounting for most of the 20 Rest of India wickets across both innings.
Dhull and Manav Suthar (56), who put up a 104-run partnership for the seventh wicket, helped bring Rest of India back into the match after they had fallen to 133 for six in the first session on the last morning.
Rest’s dreams of an unlikely victory were dashed, though, as Dhull attempted to slit Thakur, but Atharva Taide made a brilliant catch just inches inside the boundary ropes at the deep third man boundary.
After bowler Thakur gave the batter a fiery send-off, there was a violent altercation in which he and Delhi man Dhull almost came to blows.
The Vidarbha fielders and the two umpires intervened to defuse the situation, but the match referee would punish both of them in some way.
Thakur dismissed Akash Deep with the very next delivery, and then Dubey, the Ranji Trophy’s top wicket-taker from the previous year, put a spectacular finish to the match.
“Vidarbha played well and were deserving winners. If we had applied ourselves in a better way, after assessing the conditions, I think we could have come close to the total,” Rest of India skipper Rajat Patidar said after the end of the match.
The player of the match for Vidarbha was Atharva Taide, who scored 143 in their opening essay and dismissed danger man Dhull with a timely catch.
“Last couple of seasons weren’t great for me. But this season, I prepared very well. I wanted to make an impact for my team and starting the season with the Irani Cup had been better than this.
“So all this evening is for VCA. Everybody, my coach, selector, everybody who’s back me throughout the season is for them,” said Taide.
The fact that Akash Deep appeared completely fit after recovering from his shoulder injury sustained during the August Oval Test match against England will further please the national selectors. During both innings, Akash bowled 29 overs (19 and 10) and claimed three wickets.
Despite hitting a half-century in the first innings, Abhimanyu Easwaran’s dismal record of failing to lead his team to victory in important knockout matches persisted. In both innings, Easwaran was removed in the same manner.
His stay was terminated by an arm ball from a left-arm spinner, Harsh Dubey in the second dig and Parth Rekhade in the first essay. He was caught completely unaware and dismissed plumb in front on both occasions.
