Irani Cup: Rest On India Thrash Saurashtra By 8 Wickets To Regain Title

Kuldeep Sen blew away the last two batters with scorching pace and steep bounce to finish with a match haul of eight wickets as Rest of India won their 29th Irani Trophy with a walk-in-the-park eight wicket victory over Saurashtra on Tuesday. While Saurashtra gave a much better account of themselves in the second innings but a total of 380 meant Rest of india needed only 105 runs with almost two days of play left.

They knocked off the runs in little over a session and half with Abhimanyu Easwaran remaining unbeaten on 63 while adding 81 match winning runs for the unbroken third wicket stand with keeper Kona Bharat (27 not out).

However, it was young Kuldeep (5/94 in 19 overs) who quickly wrapped up the Saurashtra innings in the morning as he bowled one fast and full to trap Parth Bhut plumb in-front.

Jaydev Unadkat, who played a captain's knock of 89 to carry the fight till fourth morning, was finally dismissed when Kuldeep banged one short and extra bounce saw the batter slash hard but only to find the resultant edge carry to keeper Bharat.

With a match-haul of 8 wickets, Kuldeep showed why he is so highly rated at the national level and will be travelling with the Indian team to Perth as a net bowler for the T20 World Cup.

Easwaran, who has an average of 32 in his last 20 innings, played some flowing strokes, including some great cover drives but to be fair, these weren't runs scored under pressure like what Sarfaraz Khan did when he came into bat at 18/3 in RoI's first innings.

Deservingly, Bengal pacer Mukesh Kumar got the 'Player of the Match' award for his mesmerizing first morning spell when he got four top-order wickets to bowl Saurashtra out for 98 and literally pocket the game.

"There was some assistance early