Karnataka demolish Rest of India (ROI) by 246 runs, win Irani Cup for second consecutive time

Karnataka eased past Rest of India (ROI) in the Irani Cup final by 246 runs at Bangalore. Karnataka were bowled out for 244 in the first innings after Varun Aaron picked up six wickets for ROI. Karun Nair and Abhishek Reddy scored half-centuries for Karnataka to make sure that they went past 200. Mayank Agarwal however top scored for Karnataka with a sound 68. READ: Manish Pandey, Varun Aaron break records during Irani Cup 2014-15 match at Bangalore

ROI in the second innings took a slender lead of 20 runs courtesy of a brilliant 78 by Kedar Jhadav. Naman Ojha too got a start, but could not convert it into a big score. Skipper Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun and Shreyas Gopal picked up three wickets apiece for Karnataka, but could not restrict ROI take that lead. READ: Abhimanyu Mithun’s exclusive interview with CricketCountry’s Sudatta Mukherjee

Add Cricket Country as a Preferred Source

Karnataka in the third innings came out with a positive intent with their opener Ravikumar Samarth scoreing a brilliant 81. A brilliant century by Manish Pandey lower down the order ensured that Karnataka finished with 422, setting ROI a target of 403. ROI were dismissed for just 156 in pursuit of the mammoth total with an entire day to spare. With this Karnataka become the only team after Mumbai to win the Irani Cup two times in a row. Karnataka captain skipper Vinay Kumar is to be given a lot of credit for this feat.

Brief scores:

Karnataka 244 (ManishPandey 68, Mayank Agarwal 59; Varun Aaron 6 for 63) & 422 (Ravikumar Samarth 81, Manish Pandey 123; Shardul Thakur 5 for 86) beat Rest of India (ROI) 264 (Naman Ojha 34, Kedar Jhadav 78; Abhimanyu Mithun 3 for 46 & 156 (Jiwanjot SIngh 38, Kedar Jhadav 56; Shreyas Gopal 4 for 39) by 246 runs