Karnataka retained the Irani Cup with a thumping 246-run win over the Rest of India XI at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. After successfully defending the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the Ranji Trophy this season, the Vinay Kumar-led team also retained the coveted domestic title for the 2014-15 season.
Having conceded the first innings lead to ROI, Karnataka had to press for victory in the game and they did so with lot of grit and determination. With a crucial 123 not out in the second innings, Manish Pandey put the defending champions in a commanding position. Having set the opposition a 403-run target, Abhimanyu Mithun (three for 40) plucked the top-order while Shreyas Gopal (four for 39) claimed the lower half of the ROI line-up to bowl their side to a comprehensive win.
Earlier, after resuming their second innings on the overnight total of 341 for six, Karnataka lost their remaining four wickets to Shardul Thakur on the fourth morning for the addition of 81 runs. However, while the Mumbai pacer claimed Vinay, Abhimanyu Mithun, Sreenath Aravind and HS Sharath; their middle-order bat, Pandey propelled the team to 422 with an unbeaten century.
Defending the stiff total, Abhimanyu Mithun forced an edge from Unmukt Chand through to the wicketkeeper and bowled Paras Dogra in only the second over of the innings. In his next, the pacer had Naman Ojha edge the ball to Robin Uthappa to leave ROI fumbling on eight for three. The Manoj Tiwary-led team could not recover from the early blows and continued to falter.
Jiwanjot Singh and the captain then took the team to Lunch at 32 for three and had added 30 runs to the tally in the second session until Sharath sent back the opener.
Couple of overs later Tiwary lost his stumps to Aravind and left the side tottering on 65 for five. ROI's man-of-the-hour Kedar Jadhav strove to carry the innings forward but kept losing partners at regular intervals. Jayant Yadav and Rishi Dhawan were trapped lbw by Gopal while Thakur was castled by the spinner.
With the side in despair at 152, Jadhav holed out to deep mid-wicket off Gopal and returned to the pavilion. In the next over due to an unfortunate mix-up, Pragyan Ojha was run-out responding to Varun Aaron bringing curtains down on the game and handing Karnataka a win.
Result: Karnataka win by 246 runs
Man of the Match: Manish Pandey’s unbeaten 123-run knock to set-up the game for Karnataka
Brief scores:
End of Day 1: Kar 1st inn 244 all out in 77.1 overs (M Agarwal 68, V Aaron 6/63, P Ojha 2/35); ROI 1st inn 20/1 in 5 overs (J Singh 16*, Vinay Kumar 1/12)
End of Day 2: ROI 1st inn 264 all out in 75.4 overs (K Jadhav 78, A Mithun 3/46, S Gopal 3/51, Vinay Kumar 3/76); Kar 2nd inn 39/0 in 11 overs (R Samarth 21, M Agarwal 15)
End of Day 3: Kar 2nd inn 341/6 in 43 overs (R Samarth 81, K Nair 80, M Pandey 73*, V Aaron 2/85, P Ojha 2/93)
End of Day 4: Kar 2nd inn 422 all out in 110.3 overs (M Pandey 123*, S Thakur 5/ 86); ROI 2nd inn 156 all out in 43.3 overs (K Jadhav 56, S Gopal 4/39, A Mithun 3/40)
