Rest of India win Irani Trophy with innings win

Medium pacers T.Kumaran and Harvinder Singh Sodhi skittled out Karnataka for just 91 runs in their second innings to bowl Rest of India to victory by an innings and 60 runs with more than a day to spare in the annual Irani Trophy fixture at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Monday.

Rest of India, with Sitanshu Kotak hitting a fine century, were in command at stumps on the third day. Few however would have thought that the Rest of India would wrap up the game so quickly and by an innings. But with home team's generally reliable batting crumbling before the seam bowling of Kumaran and Sodhi, the match, expected to be a keen contest, was over in double quick time.

Rest of India who resumed at 298 for six, were dismissed for 321 with Javagal Srinath in tremendous form. The 30-year-old spearhead of the Indian attack brought the innings to a swift end with a spell of 6.3-3-9-4. His first victim this morning was Kotak who was out leg before for 118. Kotak had put on 112 runs for the seventh wicket with HS Sodhi. The next to go was KN Ananthapadmanabhan whom Srinath bowled for 10 with the total on 316. In his next over, Srinath had Sodhi leg before for 55. And in his following over, Srinath ended the innings by having Kumaran caught by Somasundar with Nilesh Kulkarni remaining unbeaten on nought. Srinath finished with 6 for 77 and Rest of India on Monday morning added just 23 runs off 13.4 overs.

Karnataka's joy at keeping the Rest of India lead down to 151 however was short lived. Their second innings was a disaster from start to finish and lasted only 33.5 overs. HS Sodhi started the rot by having Arun Kumar caught by Badani in his second over. Somasundar and A.Vijay, coming together for the second wicket, added 32 runs off 12.2 overs and the stage seemed set for a Karnataka fightback. However Somasundar was caught by skipper Mongia off Sodhi for 14 and this set off a collapse. In his next over, Sodhi had Naidu caught by Das for one. In the following over, Kumaran got into the wicket taking act with Vijay edging him to Mongia for 15.

Suddenly Karnataka were 42 for four and facing the prospect of an innings defeat. The procession had begun and at 49, in the same over, Kumaran dismissed Sriram and Yalvigi. Shiraguppi was out to Sodhi in the next over and then in the following over, Kumaran dismissed Kumble who gave Mongia his third catch of the innings. In his next over Kumaran dismissed Ganesh and Karnataka were gasping for breath at 60 for nine in the 26th over.

Srinath then indulged in some big hitting and with last man Anand Katti added 31 runs off 8.3 overs. Finally Kumaran had Srinath leg before for 27 made off 45 balls with the help of four hits to the ropes. He was the top scorer in an innings which had only two other batsmen to cross double digits in Somasundar and Vijay. Sodhi finished with 4 for 41 off 16 overs while Kumaran had six for 39 off 14.5 overs. Having bagged four for 47 in the first innings, the Tamil Nadu medium pacer finished with match figures of 10 for 86 - the first bowler to get ten wickets on his Irani Trophy debut.