Irani Cup | Spinners rule the roost as Mumbai tightens its noose around RoI

Spinners dominate as Mumbai takes control against Rest of India in the Irani Cup match at Ekana Cricket Stadium.

The beauty of a five-day cricket match between two quality sides was on full display.

After being made to toil for the first three days, the spin twins from each of the teams made optimum use of a wearing surface at the Bharat Ratna Shree Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium to ensure that the last day’s play of the Irani Cup game between Ranji Trophy champion Mumbai and Rest of India will be far from being a formality.

Twelve wickets fell on Friday, the penultimate day of the game – two less than the combined tally over the first three days – with the spinners snaring 11 of them (the other was a run-out).

With a solid lead of 274 runs, including the 121-run advantage it gained in the first essay, Mumbai appears to be the team in control.

With uneven bounce and vicious turn for an odd ball being a regular phenomenon on a track with multiple roughs, Prithvi Shaw’s aggressive fifty (76, 105b, 8x4, 1x6) ensured Mumbai continued to take the game away from RoI.

But a change of angle to around-the-wicket worked wonders for Saransh Jain, the offie, who bowled a dream ball that held its line and crashed into off-stump. Two balls later, Shams Mulani was cleaned up after shouldering the arms.

RoI will hope to wipe out Mumbai early on the fifth morning and let its batters go for the kill with a “nothing-to-lose” mindset.