Yuvraj Responds to the Call; Slams Double Hundred as ROI Beat Mumbai for Irani Trophy

By Sreelata S. Yellamrazu

        Even as team India celebrate in far away, there is a man who is quietly content that he has done the best he could even if he did not make the Indian squad. That would have to be the Rest of India captain, Yuvraj Singh, who not only lead his team to a stupendous win in the Irani Trophy but also, scored heavily himself to silence his critics, even if briefly.
      The Rest of India put tremendous pressure on the Ranji Trophy champions, Mumbai, first by posting a huge first innings total and then repeating the act while their spinners did the job in ensuring that Mumbai would stay beaten.

       ROI had the likes of Abhinav Mukund going for them in the first innings, scoring 161 runs even as Shikar Dhawan and Subramaniam Badrinath  only fortified their individual prowess with eighty-three runs and ninety-four runs respectively. But there was more action to come from the middle and lower order with Parthiv Patel crossing the triple digit mark while Virat Kohli fell ten short and even Ravichandran Ashwin showed he could bat just as well as he could spin the ball with a fine seventy-three.

     The Mumbai team under tremendous duress despite Dhawal Kulkarni’s five-for could only fight briefly through their captain, Wasim Jaffer, who made seventy-one and Ajinkya Rahane to be dismissed for 274 as Jaidev Unadkat left his mark.

       Batting again to put Mumbai out of the contest, there was more heroics from the Rest of India team as Yuvraj Singh stamped his authority on the match with a double century at a time when he lost his place in the Indian Test team to Suresh Raina and was desperate to show that form and fitness were not of tremendous concern as far as he was concerned. To back it up in a match of such impact would then have pleased Yuvraj immensely. It also meant that Yuvraj’s declaration at tea on the fourth day left Mumbai chasing a gargantuan 782 to win the Irani Trophy.

       Jaffer defied the odds with eighty-eight as Rahane bettered his own score from the first innings scoring 191 runs, but Mumbai’s immediate target would have been to draw at the end of the fifth day, the task they fell short of as Ashwin and Piyush Chawla tore into the Mumbai line up with finesse to give Yuvraj Singh and Rest of India the Irani Trophy on the day India beat Australia in outstanding fashion.

©Sreelata S. Yellamrazu for ©www.mindspacecricket.com