The 56th season of the Irani Cup went underway today at the VCA stadium in Nagpur. Rest of India takes on Ranji champions Vidarbha for the ultimate supremacy in Indian domestic cricket.
Rest of India was led by Karun Nair and Vidarbha captain Faiz Fazal won the toss and elected to bat first. Vidarbha got a big boost in India seamer Umesh Yadav playing for his domestic side and R Ashwin joined the Rest of India side.
Vidarbha openers Fazal and R Sanjay gave Vidarbha a solid start by adding 101 runs for the first wicket. R Sanjay hit 53 runs in 111 balls with 6 fours and one six. Fazal was then joined by seasoned campaigner Wasim Jaffer and the duo added 117 runs for the second wicket.
Fazal, was looking extremely good, but was dismissed for 89 by R Ashwin, caught by Saini. Wasim Jaffer however, went on to complete a sublime century. He never looked troubled against either the spinners or the quick bowlers.
For Rest of India, Navdeep Saini and Siddharth Kaul bowled well, but had no wickets to show for it. R Ashwin (1/66) bowled off spin and leg spin in an effort to show off his variations in bowling and got a wicket in bargain, removing Vidarbha captain Faiz Fazal.
Jayant Yadav (1/73) was the other bowler to pick up a wicket, that of R Sanjay.
BRIEF SCORES:
VID 289/2 (W JAFFER 113*, F FAZAL 89)
