Once you start dominating the game, even your opponents will start dancing to your tunes.

Irani Trophy, Day 2: Rajasthan surrendered them to Rest of India

After dominating the day 1 completely, Rest of India (ROI) began the day 2 of the match poorly by losing their skipper Patel for the same overnight score of 55 runs but still managed to post huge total. Rajasthan on their reply in 1^st innings lost three wickets already for just 53 runs on the scoreboard at the end of Day 2.

After adding just 10 runs to the overnight total of 400/3, Rest of India lost their first wicket as Parthiv Patel chased the wide delivery from Choudhary and edged it to the hands of keeper but Rahane in partnership with Punjab rookie Mandeep Singh made sure they go past 500 runs. Rahane after adding 35 more runs to his overnight score of 117 was dismissed by Mathur for 152 runs. Mandeep Singh in his flowing style of batting stroked boundaries one after another as Rest of India eased on their way to 500 runs. But very soon Choudhary produced good delivery to get rid of Mandeep Singh and opened the tail of Rest of India.

But Umesh Yadav and Varon Aaron decided to show their batting ability as they both fight for the spot on the Indian ODI team. They both played cautiously and added 77 runs to the total but it’s not all over yet for toiling Rajasthan bowlers on the field. Rahul Sharma walked in and smacked the bowlers to all parts of the park as he notched up his second first class fifty of his career. Finally the dismissal of Rahul Sharma for 58 runs from just 38 balls bought the ROI innings to end for the score of 663 and smile on the faces of Rajasthan bowlers.

ROI can now go for all-out attack in their bowling after that huge 1^st innings score and they just did that. ROI opened their bowling with Vinay Kumar who relies on the swing and Umesh Yadav who got raw pace to make full use of new ball. Rajasthan straightaway on the defensive foot and their cautious approach didn’t work as Umesh Yadav found the edge of Saxena bat on the 10^th over. Then the two veteran batsmen Kanitkar and Aakash Chopra joined their hands to take their side safely with just 13 more overs to go for stumps but they faltered and lost both their wickets in the end.

Rajasthan team was guilty of playing defensive cricket on both their bowling and batting as they let ROI to play their own game without any problem and now face daunting task ahead of them. It will be near impossible for Rajasthan to avoid defeat in this match with pitch starting to assist spinners.

Score:

Rest of India 663/10 (Dhawan 177, Rahane 152, A Choudhary 4/125) and Rajasthan 53 for 3 (Yadav 2/22) trails by 610 runs

It won’t be too late to see Rajasthan start their 2^nd innings batting in the match.

Tags: Cricket, Domestic Cricket, India, Irani Trophy, Parthiv Patel, Rajasthan, Rest Of India, ROI