Rest of India take complete control

Rest of India 260 and 352 for 4 (Tiwary 80*, Saha 5*) lead Mumbai 230 by 382 runs
Abhinav Mukund hit his seventh first-class hundred and, though M Vijay fell short of three figures, Rest of India had taken complete control of the Irani Cup on the fourth day. The openers were dismissed late in the first session and S Badrinath went in the second, but Manoj Tiwary ensured that ROI further tightened their grip on the game with a patient half-century. A persistent drizzle brought a slightly early end to the first session and it returned later to prevent any play from happening in the last. With only a day left, and the weather looking iffy, this game appeared to be moving towards a draw.


The day had everything that you could expect in domestic cricket when one team moved towards gaining complete ascendancy. The pace of cricket was gentle, batsmen simply cantered along, the bowling lacked sting, there was no one watching and if only a dog had invaded the field it would have made for a picture-perfect session. It was a day to bring books, your ipod, some good food and drinks, and perhaps, even take an afternoon siesta. The only bright spot came at the end of the second session when the television flashed a glimpse of a padded-up Virender Sehwag which teased you with the hope of some fireworks in the last session. But the rain played kill joy.


Abhinav, who has now hit seven hundreds and two fifties from 17 first-class games, moved towards the landmark without any trouble. In fact, he didn't even realise that he had reached his hundred - when he clipped Dhawal Kulkarni off his pads - until the players in the dressing room started clapping. He celebrated the landmark with a lovely off drive before unfurling an airier one past mid-off and a clipped boundary to deep square leg.


ROI was in so much control that Vijay even tried, successfully, a switch hit when he was on 88 and Tiwary played two consecutive reverse sweeps. Vijay didn't hit any boundaries today, instead moving along in dabbed singles. He did have a slice of luck on 79 when Vinayak Samant failed to hold on to a low catch off Kulkarni but fell pulling a long hop from Iqbal Abdulla straight to deep midwicket. Abhinav too departed soon, chipping Ramesh Powar straight to long-off. However, with the fall of Abhinav and Vijay, ROI pulled down the shutters completely for quite a while till Tiwary got things moving again.


Tiwary started off slowly, reaching 6 from 63 balls, before he got going with an edged boundary to third man. That boundary seemed to turn the tide for him and he began to play shots more frequently. He used his feet well against the spinners, driving straight and lifting them inside-out over covers. By the end of the second session, ROI's lead had reached 382 and they still had six wickets in hand.