Irani Cup 2019, ROI vs Vidarbha, Day 1, Review: Hanuma Vihari's century helps the visitors get a reasonable first innings score

The Ranji Trophy 2018-19 champions Vidarbha kicked off the Irani Cup 2019 by taking on the Rest of India (ROI). With the help of great knocks from Hanuma Vihari and Mayank Agarwal, the visitors seemed to have gained a slight edge. However, by dismissing Vihari in the 85th over of the day and wrapping the tail up, Vidarbha struck back and balanced the proceedings.

Rest of India skipper Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and opted to bat first in the match. It was just two men who dominated the show for ROI. Rajneesh Gurbani dismissed Anmolpreet Singh early in the innings for just 15 runs. After this wicket fell, Mayank Agarwal was joined by Hanuma Vihari in the middle. This duo batted beautifully and stitched together a wonderful partnership of 125 runs.

Mayank Agarwal narrowly misses out on a century

Mayank was the aggressor in this partnership while Vihari played second fiddle. The former played some glorious shots on either side of the wicket, smashed 10 fours and 3 sixes in his innings. But, the batsman was dismissed right at the stroke of his century. Mayank tried to advance forward and wanted to hit the ball through the line towards the cover region. But the ball held up in the pitch and he ended up scooping that one to the man at cover.

Rahane also failed to deliver and got out on 13 as he misjudged his shot. Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, Krishnappa Gowtham – all fell cheaply and left Vihari stranded at one end. Yet, he maintained his composure and focussed only on the task at hand. The 25-year-old choose his shots wisely and notched up a century.

But a slight lapse in concentration towards the end of the day put curtains to his innings. Aditya Sarwate, the hero of the Ranji final, got one to bounce drastically taking Hanuma Vihari by surprise. As he tried to defend it, the ball kissed his gloves and went straight to Faiz Fazal who was standing at the first slip.

Gurbani dismissed Rahul Chahar in the very next over bringing an end to an impressive knock of 22. But the bowlers took quite a while before they plucked the final wicket out in the last over of the day. Ankit Rajpoot put up quite a show with a 21-ball 25 helping the team stretch the first innings total further. The side was ultimately bowled out for 330 runs.

Brief Scores:

Rest of India, 1st Innings: 330/10 in 89.4 overs (Hanuma Vihari 114, Mayank Agarwal 95; Aditya Sarwate 3/99)

Match Situation: Vidarbha yet to bat.

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