Stumps Mumbai 153 for 6 (Shaw 76, Kotian 20*, Jain 4-67, Suthar 2-40) and 537 lead Rest of India 416 (Abhimanyu 191, Jurel 93, Kotian 3-101, Mulani 3-122) by 274 runs
The fourth day of the Irani Cup started with Rest of India well placed to challenge Mumbai’s first-innings score of 537, and overnight batters Abhimanyu Easwaran and Dhruv Jurel did well to begin with. Shams Mulani, however, sent them back in back-to-back overs to finish off the fight, and from 393 for 4, Rest of India collapsed to 416 all out. That gave Mumbai a handy lead of 121, which Prithvi Shaw has added to since, putting the team in a strong position to finish on top.
Abhimanyu and Jurel were on 151 and 30 overnight, and Jurel was the quicker of the two on the fourth morning, scoring at 76.85 to get to 93 before Mulani sent him back gloving an attempted sweep through to wicketkeeper Hardik Tamore. That ended the fifth-wicket stand of 165, and one wicket led to another when Abhimanyu also fell to the sweep, sending the ball pitched in the rough outside leg stump to Tanush Kotian at short fine-leg. He fell for 191.
No one from Rest of India reached double figures after that as Mulani and Kotian finished with three apiece.
The Mumbai second innings was all about Shaw. As wickets fell at the other end, all courtesy spin – Saransh Jain the offspinner and Manav Suthar the leg-arm spinner – Shaw went about his job merrily, scoring 76 in 105 balls with eight fours and a six. Shaw, who had missed out in the first innings, scoring only 4, became the fifth Mumbai wicket to fall late in the day, to Jain, who has 4 for 67 to Suthar’s 2 for 40.
Rest of India will hope to finish off the Mumbai innings quickly on the fifth morning and give themselves a chance of pulling off the chase, however steep and unlikely – seeing that spinners are very much in the game at this stage – but Mumbai will start the day feeling the better of the two camps.
