Yashasvi Jaiswal reminded everyone that he is still the next best thing of Indian cricket with a dominating ton on Day 1 of Irani Cup for Rest of India against Madhya Pradesh. Opener Abhimanyu Easwaran showed his calibre too with a 154-run knock in 371-run partnership for the second wicket. Madhya Pradesh bowlers looked clueless for most of the day’s play and ended up conceding 381 runs after losing the toss.
Skipper Mayank Agarwal fell early to Avesh Khan. Agarwal edged one to wicketkeeper Himanshu Mantri. He scored just two runs from 11 balls. Jaiswal was cautious early on whereas Waswaran did the bulk of scoring. Easwaran capitalised on bad deliveries with back-foot punches and lofted shots. In the second session, Easwaran was the first of the two to get to his century. Easwaran reached the three figures in style with a maximum off Saransh Jain’s bowling.
Jaiswal reached his century in the second session as well. He hit Arham Aquil for a boundary. He took 157 deliveries to get to the milestone. Once settled Jaiswal looked the better of the two as he punished not just bad deliveries but good ones as well.
He accelerated after reaching the three figures. In the third session, he did the bulk of scoring. The left-handed batter took 74 more deliveries to get to his double century. He reached it with a boundary off Shubham Sharma’s bowling. Meanwhile, Easwaran was batting on 142. In the next few overs, the top-order batter reached his 150.
The Jaiswal onslaught was finally ended by Khan who managed to beat his bat and hit the stumps. The southpaw scored 213 runs from 259 deliveries including as many as 30 fours and three sixes. As the partnership was broken, Easwaran followed him back to the dressing room. The 27-year-old batter got run out off the next delivery. He scored 154 runs from 240 balls including 17 fours and two sixes.
Saurabh Kumar and Baba Indrajith remained unbeaten as they had only few overs of second new ball to play. Rest of India are in a comfortable position having dominated the proceedings on Day 1 at Captain Roop Singh Stadium, Gwalior.
With a double century at no.3, Jaiswal has proved that he can be a successor to Cheteshwar Pujara. The 21-year-old did not have enough runs under his belt to get a place in Irani Cup. He was not even in top 50 run-getters of Ranji Trophy 2022-23. He had scored 315 runs from five games including a solitary century at an average of 45. But, he was backed by the selectors to prove his mettle in yet another big game.
