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Atharva Taide, Yash Thakur and Harsh Dubey were the stars as Vidarbha secured their third Irani Cup title, beating the Rest of India by 93 runs at Nagpur on Sunday.
Vidarbha has made it three Irani Cup victories in their three appearances in the competition. Over the last five years, the hegemony of the ROI side has been challenged successfully for the second time, with Mumbai having beaten them in the previous edition. Vidarbha won the toss and elected to bat first. Atharva Taide was the only one from top four which struck around, as they were reduced to 80/3. Taide struck a 184-run partnership with Yash Rathod (91 in 153 balls, with six fours and a six), with the opener getting a massive century of his own, scoring 143 in 283 balls, with 15 fours and a six. Vidarbha were skittled out for 342 runs in 101.4 overs. Akash Deep (3/51) and Manav Suthar (3/74) did really well for ROI with the ball, with Saransh Jain getting two wickets and Anshul Kamboj, Gurnoor Brar getting one each. In reply, Abhimanyu Easwaran (52 in 112 balls, with six fours) and skipper Rajat Patidar (66 in 125 balls, with 10 fours) did score valuable half-centuries for ROI, but they lacked support from rest of the batting line-up. Except for a opening stand of 52 runs by openers Easwaran and Aryan Juyal (23), there was nothing special that ROI offered from batting point of view as they were skittled out for 214 runs. Yash Thakur (4/66), Parth Rekhade (2/24) and Harsh Dubey (2/58) were the top bowlers for Vidarbha. Vidarbha led by 128 runs. ROI put on an extremely spirited bowling performance in the second innings, as Aman Mokhade (37 in 76 balls, with three fours), skipper Akshay Wadkar (36 in 125 balls, with four boundaries) and Darshan Nalkande (35 in 92 balls, with two fours) were the only ones crossing the 30-run mark. Vidarbha was skittled out for 232 runs. ROI was set at 361 runs to win. Kamboj (4/34) was the pick of the bowlers for ROI. In reply, ROI fumbled really hard in their run chase, reduced to 80/5, with Ishan Kishan (35 in 65 balls, with three fours) not being able to make it big. Yash Dhull (92 in 117 balls, with eight fours and a six) put up a fight as he managed a 53-run stand with Saransh Jain (29 in 36 balls, with two fours) and a 104-run stand for the seventh wicket with Manav Suthar (56* in 113 balls, with four boundaries and a six). But it was not enough as they were bundled out for 267 runs in 73.5 overs. Harsh (4/73) took key wickets of Easwaran and Kishan while defending the total, while Yash and Aditya Thakare took two wickets each. Taide was given the 'Player of the Match' award for his century. (ANI)
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