Bengaluru, Mar 20:
Manish Pandey’s scintillating century and leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal’s sterling bowling effort helped Ranji champions Karnataka retain the Irani Cup after beating Rest of India by a massive 246 runs on the fourth and penultimate day, here today.
The moment of celebration came for the hosts after Pandey managed to uproot a stump as a souvenir after running out Varun Aaron.
Karnataka became only the second team to bag back-to-back Irani Cup titles. Mumbai had won back-to-back Irani title thrice, between 1962-63 to 1963-64, 1969-70 to 1970-71 and 1975-76 to 1976-77.
With this win, Karnataka rounded off the season with a grand treble just as they did a year ago by retaining the Ranji Trophy and winning the Vijay Hazare Trophy earlier in the season.
Gopal returned with impressive figures of four for 39 runs in six overs, while pacer Abhimanyu Mithun scalped three for 40 in his 10 overs to bowl out Rest of India for 156 in their second innings in 43.3 overs while chasing a mammoth target of 403 runs at the Chinnaswamy stadium.
Man-of-the-match Pandey won the laurels for his batting, but Gopal turned the tables around for Karnataka by taking four consecutive wickets after the visitors reached the score of 113.
He picked up the prized scalps of dangerous Kedar Jadhav (56), Jayant Yadav (10), Rishi Dhawan (10) and Shardul Tahkur (10).
Gopal first picked up Yadav by trapping him LBW, leaving Rest of India in precarious condition with the scoreboard reading 116 for six.
Thereafter, the leggie mercilessly and in quick succession removed Dhawan, Thakur and Jadhav to take Karnataka inches away from the victory.
Mithun also bowled his heart out in both Rest of India innings, ending with an impressive match figures of six for 86 off 27 overs.
“All credit goes to the boys. Dedication and desire key to Karnataka’s success. (PTI)
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