Jaipur, Oct 2 (IANS) Rest of India (ROI) tightened their grip on the Irani Cup match against Rajasthan by amassing 663 runs in the first innings and then reducing the hosts to 53/3 at the end of the second day’s play here Sunday.
At stumps, Robin Bisht was yet to open his account after Aakash Chopra (20) departed on the last ball of the day. Rajasthan trail by 610 runs and would need to make a herculean effort to save the follow on.
Rajasthan were slow to get off the blocks with Chopra and Vineet Saxena (11) scoring only seven runs off 6.5 overs.
Saxena did not survive for long and was caught behind off Umesh Yadav (2-22) in the tenth over to reduce Rajasthan to 25/1. Yadav struck again after experienced Hrishikesh Kanitkar (14) gave an edge to wicketkeeper to reduce Rajasthan to 44/2.
Chopra took time to settle for his 20 but misread Pragyan Ojha’s delivery to be caught at long-on by Yadav.
In contrast, ROI scored briskly. The visitors had set the tone of the match after solid display from their batsmen, Shikhar Dhawan (177) and Ajinkya Rahane (152), who scored centuries to propel their side to 400/3 on the opening day.
Rahane continued in the same vein second day, unleashing a flurry of boundaries off youngster Deepak Chahar in his very first over.
Skipper Parthiv Patel, who was the other overnight batsman, however, could not add to his total and fell to Aniket Choudhury (4-125) after being caught behind with the second new ball in the day’s third over.
Rahane, on 152, was the next to fall, after he was caught at cover by Bisht off Sumit Mathur, leaving Rest of India at 489 for 5.
Mandeep Singh (60), Rahul Sharma (52), R.Vinay Kumar (43) and Varun Aaron (41) made useful contribution down the order before the side folded up before the tea break, giving Rajasthan a session to bat.
