Yash Dubey’s gritty century was not enough for Madhya Pradesh to prevent Rest of India from extending their overall lead to 275 on Friday (March 3) on the third day of the Irani Cup.
Starting the day on 53, young Dubey scored 109 off 258 balls and shared two useful partnerships of 114 for the fourth wicket with Harsh Gawli (54) and 96 for the sixth wicket with Saransh Jain (66). MP, however, managed only 294 in their first innings, 190 runs short of Rest’s first innings score of 484.
At stumps, the rest were 85 for 1 in 18 overs, with Yashasvi Jaiswal scoring an unbeaten 53-ball 58. Mayank Agarwal (0) failed again after being lbw by Kumar Karthikeya.
In the first two sessions, ROI gave them a 190-run first innings cushion through off-spinner Pulkit Narang (4/65) and the pace duo of Navdeep Saini (3/56) and Mukesh Kumar (2/44).
Narang, a student of Virat Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma, has been a regular net bowler for Team India and has improved a lot since being dropped by Delhi a few seasons ago. He was instrumental in dismissing Shatkaveer Dubey after which MP could not put up a fight.
With two more days left, ROI would like to bat big and set a big target. In the morning, Saini made the breakthrough in the ninth over of the day when he dismissed Gawli with a ball that was high enough to hit the off-stump.
MP lost another wicket – Aman Solanki (7) – adding just 16 runs, but Dubey remained solid at one end and found a good ally in Jain. Both added 96 runs to avoid the follow-on.
Luck also favored Dubey as he was dropped twice but he held steady to bring up his hundred. Narang finally accounted for Dubey, who missed a drive to be clean bowled. MP then lost their last four wickets for 53 runs.
Abbreviated Score:
Rest of India 484 and 85/1; 18 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 58 bt, Abhimanyu Easwaran 26 bt). Madhya Pradesh 294; 112.5 overs (Yash Dubey 109, Harsh Gawli 54, Ankit Kushwaha 22 not out; Pulkit Narang 4/65, Navdeep Saini 3/56, Mukesh Kumar 2/44). Rest of India has taken a lead of 275 runs.