RoI seals Irani Trophy beating Delhi

Rest of India notched up a comfortable win over the Ranji Trophy champion Delhi and finished the game just before the lunch on the 4th day of Irani Cup in Vadodara. Spinner Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh emerged with some great spells to register a 187- run victory.

Delhi resumed their 3rd day score of 113 for 3 but fell down very badly losing wickets at quick succession; seven wickets for just 77 runs. Besides Gautam Gambhir who made a valiant knock of 91, no other batsmen could stand to chase a target of 378; the entire Delhi team were bowled out for 190.

After Zaheer Khan’s two earlier jolts on day 3rd, it was Rest of India skipper Anil Kumble and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh who shared 7 wickets to clatter Delhi innings. Harbhajan emerged with a figure of 4 for 31 and Kumble finished up with 3 for 19.

Injured Akash Chopra, who came to bat along with Gambhir with a hope to take the Delhi innings forward got out easily on a duck in the over of Khan. Rajat Bhatia (31) was the second highest scorer for Delhi.

Earlier, RoI in its second innings added 302 runs to its first innings’ total of 252 thus taking an over all lead of 377 runs. However, chasing 265 more runs in the remaining two days with seven wickets in hand, Delhi looked struggling on the fourth day and eventually bundled out adding just 77 runs.

Brief Score:

RoI Batting 1st innings: 252 W Jaffer (50), Rahul Dravid (46), M Kaif (29) Delhi Bowling: Ishant Sharma (3/22), P Sangwan (3/57), C Nanda (3/60)

Delhi Batting 1st Innings: 177 Akash Chopra (42), Virendra Sehwag (43), P Bisht (28) RoI Bowling: Munaf Patel (4/31), Zaheer Khan (2/45), Kumble (2/34), Harbhajan (2/32)

RoI Batting 2nd Innings: 302 Dravid (69), Badrinath (36), MS Dhoni (84) Delhi Bowling: Ishant Sharma (3/52), Nanda (5/48)

Delhi Batting 2nd Innings: 190 (60.5 over) Gautam Gambhir (91), Rajat Bhatia (31) RoI Bowling: Zaheer (3/47), Harbhajan (4/31), Kumble (3/19)