Final day's play called off, ROI lift 4th successive Irani Cup

Nagpur:

Rest of India clinched their fourth successive Irani Cup, defeating Mumbai on the basis of first innings lead, after the fifth and final day of the match was called off due to wet ground conditions here on Monday.

Although there was no rain since morning, overnight rains rendered the outfield unplayable and after five inspections, the on-field umpires finally decided to call off the day's proceedings without a ball being bowled.

Riding on Ravindra Jadeja's 77, Rest of India made 260 runs in their first innings and then bowled out Mumbai for 230 to take, in what proved to be, a match-winning 30-run lead.

In their second essay, the Virender Sehwag-led side were cruising at 352 for four after rain cut short the fourth day's play on Sunday with Tiwary unbeaten on 80 off 132 balls and wicket-keeper batsman Wriddhiman Saha on five.

For Rest of India, Abhinav Mukund (126 off 250 balls), Murali Vijay (91 off 211) and Tiwary starred with the bat in the second innings.

Burly off-spinner Romesh Powar and left-arm orthodox Iqbal Abdullah were the wicket-takers for Mumbai, picking up two apiece by giving away 96 and 78 runs respectively.

Earlier, skipper Wasim Jaffer (68) and Ajinkya Rahane (44) did manage to put some resistance as the pace duo of S Sreesanth (3/46) and Munaf Patel (5/70) wrecked havoc with the new ball to restrict Mumbai to 230.