The Rest of India are well and truly on their way of regaining the Irani Cup title after tightening noose on Ranji Trophy champions Rajasthan, at stumps on the second day at the Sawai Man Singh in Jaipur.
After piling up a massive 663 in their first innings, the Rest bowlers then pegged back Rajasthan reducing them to 53 for three. Worse, their batting mainstays Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Aakash Chopra are already back in the pavilion with the home team needing another 460 runs to avoid follow-on.
Umesh Yadav who consistently hit 140 kmph barrier troubled the batsmen with his pace as opener Vineet Saxena (11) fished at an away-going delivery that had extra bounce and was snapped by Parthiv Patel.
Kanitkar (14) was confidently middling the ball before he edged one that was angled across to him off Yadav's bowling.
Chopra however is the man who should be blamed for his indiscretion as he rushed out to lift Pragyan Ojha off in the last over of the day. Yadav ran backwards to take a splendid catch. Chopra had made 20 in 71 balls and never looked like taking any risk till the moment's madness brought about his downfall.
Earlier, the Rest of India batsmen did well enough to cross 650-run mark although the Rajasthan bowlers save Deepak Chahar (0/168) gave a better account of themselves.
Debutant Aniket Choudhary (4/125) induced Parthiv Patel (55) to go for a flashy shot and was caught by Rohit Jhalani behind the stumps. Mandeep Singh (60) joined Ajinkya Rahane (152) who failed to get going on Sunday.
Mandeep played some edgy strokes and in between hit a few good one as the duo added 79 runs before Rahane played an uppish cover drive off Sumit Mathur (3/129) to be caught by Robin Bisht. Mandeep, who got his third first-class half century then nicked one to Jhalani as Rest were reduced to 512 for six.
R Vinay Kumar (43) and Varun Aaron (41) then added 77 runs for the seventh wicket before Vinay perished trying to pull Saxena. Saxena also dismissed Aaron who was trapped leg-before. The duo missed their half centuries but Rahul Sharma (52) celebrated his India call-up in style as he made merry chancing his arm at anything and everything.
The five sixes he hit were big ones with a few of them landing in the stands. This was his third half century in first-class cricket and when he became the last man to be dismissed, Rest had piled enough runs to stake claim for sixth straight Irani title in recent years.
Scoreboard:
Rest of India (1st Innings)
A Mukund b Mathur 18
S Dhawan b Khatri 177
A Rahane c Bist b Mathur 152
M Pandey lbw Choudhary 16
P Patel c Jhalani b Choudhary 55
M Singh c Jhalani b Choudhary 60
R Vinay Kumar c Kanitkar b Saxena 43
V Aaron lbw Saxena 41
R Sharma c Saxena b Mathur 52
P Ojha c Jhalani b Choudhary 4
U Yadav not out 10
Extras (b-5, lb-10, w-4, nb-16) 35
Total (all out in 153.4 overs) 663
Fall of wickets: 1-77, 2-267, 3-287, 4-410, 5-489, 6-512, 7-589, 8-622, 9-645
Bowling: Chahar 35-5-168-0, Choudhary 34-4-125-4, Mathur 31.4-3-129-3, Khatri 42-4-172-1, Menaria 1-0-10-0, Bist 5-0-16-0, Saxena 5-1-28-2.
Rajasthan (1st Innings)
A Chopra c Yadav b Ojha 20
V Saxena c Patel b Yadav 11
H Kanitkar c Patel b Yadav 14
R Bist batting 0
Extras (lb-3, w-1, nb-4) 8
Total (For 3 wkts; 22.3 overs) 53
Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-44, 3-53
Bowling: R Vinay Kumar 7-1-14-0, Yadav 10-3-22-2, Aaron 5-1-14-0, Ojha 0.2-0-0-1.
