Rest of India win Irani Cup as Saha scores double ton
Wriddhiman Saha scored his maiden double century as Rest of India beat Ranji Trophy champions Gujarat to win the Irani Trophy by six wickets on Tuesday. He shared a 316-run fifth-wicket stand with Cheteshwar Pujara, who scored his 37th first-class century. The Irani Trophy is an annual one-off match played between the Ranji winners and a Rest of India team.
Wriddhiman Saha made a sterling comeback to slam his maiden hundred and help Rest of India lift the Irani Cup against Ranji Trophy champions Gujarat. (No pressure of competition vs Parthiv Patel, says Saha)Chasing 379 for victory, RoI were in trouble at 63/4 before Saha (203 not out) and Cheteshwar Pujara (116 not out) added 316 for the fifth wicket to script a six-wicket victory.Congrats! Rest of India on winning Irani Cup, 2017 @cheteshwar1@Wriddhipops@Paytmpic.twitter.com/tUZjCjobSWSaha was India's first-choice wicketkeeper in the Test team up until the Vizag Test against England before he had to be ruled out because of injury. He was replaced by Parthiv Patel for the last three Tests and the southpaw made it count with two half-centuries.WATCH VIDEO HEREHowever, now the selectors would be under pressure to think long and hard about which wicketkeeper to pick for the one-off Test against Bangladesh next month and the four-Test series against Australia which starts soon after.Rest of India had started the chase on a bad note as openers Akhil Herwadkar and Abhinav Mukund could only add 29 runs in 10 overs before Karan Patel sent back Herwadkar, who scored 20 runs in 49 balls.After seven overs, another opener Mukund (19) was also sent packing by Hardik Patel. He was caught by Dhruv Raval.Middle-order batsmen Karun Nair (7) and Manoj Tiwary (7) also failed to step up to the occasion as both were dismissed cheaply by Hardik Patel and Mohit Thadani.