Yash Dubey's gritty century wasn't enough for Madhya Pradesh to stop a rampant Rest of India from extending their overall lead to a sizeable 275 on the third day of the Irani Cup, on Friday (March 3).
Starting the day on overnight score of 53, young Dubey made 109 off 258 balls and was involved in two useful partnerships of 114 for the fourth wicket with Harsh Gawli (54) and 96 for the sixth wicket with Saransh Jain (66). MP however managed only 294 in their first innings, 190 runs less than Rest's first innings score of 484.
At stumps, Rest raced to 85 for 1 in 18 overs with Yashasvi Jaiswal smashing an unbeaten 58 off 53 balls. Mayank Agarwal (0) once again failed after being trapped leg before by Kumar Kartikeya.
In the first two sessions, ROI struck through off-spinner Pulkit Narang (4/65) and the pace duo of Navdeep Saini (3/56) and Mukesh Kumar (2/44) to give them a first innings cushion of 190 runs.
Narang, a student of Virat Kohli's childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma, has been a regular Team India net bowler and has improved a lot since he was discarded by Delhi a few seasons back. He was instrumental in dismissing centurion Dubey after which MP couldn't put up any fight.
With two more days left, ROI would be looking to bat big and set a massive target. In the morning, Saini gave the breakthrough in the ninth over of the day when he castled Gawli with a ball that nipped back enough to knock the off stump.
MP lost with another wicket -- Aman Solanki (7) -- with the addition of just 16 runs but Dubey remained solid at one end and found a good ally in Jain. The duo put together 96 runs to avoid follow-on.
Luck also aided Dubey as he was dropped twice but he remained steady to notch his century. Narang finally accounted for Dubey, who missed a drive to be clean-bowled. MP then went on to lose their last four wickets in 53 runs.
Brief Scores:
Rest of India 484 and 85/1; 18 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 58 batting, Abhimanyu Easwaran 26 batting). Madhya Pradesh 294; 112.5 overs (Yash Dubey 109, Harsh Gawli 54, Ankit Kushwah 22 not out; Pulkit Narang 4/65, Navdeep Saini 3/56, Mukesh Kumar 2/44). Rest of India lead by 275 runs.
