Vishwas Puri
The Mumbai team triumphs the Irani Cup after a long wait of 27 years. The match ended in a draw, but Mumbai won the match by virtue of the first innings.
The innings of the Mumbai team, who lost six wickets at a score of 153 by the end of day four, got rescued by the all-rounder Tanush Kotian and bowler Mohit Awasthi. After losing two quick wickets of Sarfaraz Khan and Shardul Thakur, Kotian and Awasthi batted delicately and attempted to continue the innings for Mumbai as long as possible. Kotian, who was at the score of 20 by the end of day 4, scored a brisk century of just 135 balls, whereas Mohit Awasthi also contributed with 51 runs. They both took the score of Mumbai to 329 runs at a loss of 8 wickets by the end of the second session. The duo was still unbeaten, therefore, both teams chose to call off the match as it was almost impractical to chase more than 300 runs in the only remaining session of the match. The match got drawn, but eventually Mumbai won the match as per the first inning rule of the Irani Cup, under which if the match results in a draw, the team performing better in the first inning will win the match.
But a lack of sportsmanship spirit was witnessed in the match today, Despite crossing the mark of 300 runs, Ajinkya Rahane chose not to declare inning and let the bats of his team continue the innings, which did not give a chance to ROI to at least make a try to turn the match in their favour. Ajinkya Rahane did this intentionally, keeping in mind the first inning rule, as he knew that, even if the match results in a draw, Mumbai will be declared as the winners of the match, which gave an extra advantage to the Mumbai team, turning the results in their favour.
BCCI should make some new protocols in order to tackle this issue, as judging the results of a match on the basis of only the first half is a little bit tricky and controversial.
BCCI should apply provisions such as giving only half of the prize money to the winning team if they win the match by virtue of the first inning rule. This thing can motivate the players to not push the match towards a draw and focus on winning the match by fully completing it.
However, a long 27 year old Irani Cup drought in Mumbai ended by winning the match. Sarfaraz Khan got awarded as man of the match for his heroic 222 not out runs in the first innings of the match, which was very instrumental in Mumbai’s win in the match.