Irani Cup: Mumbai 155/2 in reply to RoI’s 526 on Day 2

Mumbai: Mumbai ended day two of Irani Cup on a good note as they managed to make 155 for two in reply to Rest Of India’s massive first innings score of 526 at the Wankhade Stadium here on Thursday.

Rest of India did very well in the final session by keeping the bowling tight and managed to pick up the wicket of Wasim Jaffer who was looking dangerous and had added 132 runs for the second wicket partnership with Ajinkya Rahane.

Jaffer got out after making good 80 runs including 11 fours and one huge six. Jaffer was toying with Sreesanth’s bowling at the start of his spell and scored most of his boundaries against him but got out to a careless shot off Sreesanth in his second spell. Sreesanth looked very promising in his second spell and displayed good his line and length and bowled wicket to wicket.

Meanwhile Ajinkya Rahane was looking very promising and was unbeaten at 55 runs. He is still at the crease and looking to set up a big score for Mumbai who desperately need a couple of centuries from its players to reply RoI’s big score. In the post lunch session, Mumbai lost their opening batsman Aditya Tare to Ishwar Pandey in the fourth over of their first innings. But after that Wasim Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane steadied their ship and steered Mumbai out of the trouble.

Earlier Raina’s purple patch continued as he took Rest of India to a respectable total of 526 runs in the first innings on the second day of Irani Cup. Raina played a magnificent knock where he almost stayed till the end of the RoI innings. He scored brilliant 134 runs with the help of 14 fours and five sixes.

He was very watchful at the start of second day’s play. Highlights of his innings were that he scored most of his runs on the off-side. He played very steadily till he reached 60 runs mark. But thereafter, he took just 21 balls to reach 90 odd runs. He was very well complimented by Abhimanyu Mithun who played a cameo of 51 runs and kept Mumbai bowlers at bay. Till the lunch, Rest of India were 481 for six at lunch on Day Two of the Irani Trophy break and Mumbai were still searching for wicket. They managed to get wicket of Harbhajan Singh very early in the day.

In the post-lunch session, Rest of India lost their wickets very quickly and didn’t manage to get more runs on the board and their innings came to an end for the total of 526 runs. Rests of India’s tail-enders were dismissed quickly as they lost their last four wickets for the addition of just 21 runs. Ashok Chavan was pick of the bowlers and he took three wickets in 10.1 overs by giving away 56 runs.

Meanwhile, Mumbai lost their opening batsman Aditya Tare in the fourth over of their first innings. Ishwar Pandey was the bowler who got Tare out. But after that Wasim Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane steadied their ship and tried to get Mumbai out of the trouble. Wasim Jaffer (33*) and Ajinkya Rahane (22*) shared 47 runs for the second wicket as they helped Mumbai recover after an early loss of Aditya Tare. Both the batsmen looked extremely fluent against the pace attack of Rest of India. They managed to add 61 runs for the loss of one wicket till the tea break.

By Indian Sports News Network