On Saturday, October 5, Mumbai won the Irani Cup 2024 for the 15th time, ending their 27-year drought since their last triumph after the match was drawn at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. Ajinkya Rahane’s Mumbai ended their long wait to regain the title, defeating the Rest of India (RoI) on the basis of the first innings lead.
With this, Mumbai now has won 15 Irani Cup titles, most for any Ranji Trophy side till date. Their last win in the First-Class tournament came in 1997-98. After being sent into bat first on Day 1, Rahane-led men piled on a mammoth first innings total of 537, courtesy Sarfaraz Khan’s unbeaten 222 off 286 deliveries, along with skipper’s 97-run knock. Mukesh Kumar was the pick of the bowlers as he finished with the figures of 5/110 in his 30 over spell. Yash Dayal, Prasidh Krishna scalped two wickets each while Saransh Jain got one wicket.
Tanush Kotian’s unbeaten 114 helps Mumbai post 329/8 in second innings
In response, Mumbai then bundled out Rest of India at 416 despite Abhimanyu Easwaran’s gritty knock of 191 off 292 and Dhruv Jurel’s fighting 93. The 2023-24 Ranji Trophy champions then added to their first-innings 121-run lead with Tanush Kotian scoring an unbeaten 114 off 150 deliveries after the top-order suffered a collapse, except for Prithvi Shaw’s 76 off 105.
However, the match was going into a draw, the players called off the play for the remainder of the day as they shook hands with Mumbai reaching 329 runs for eight in the second innings. While Kotian scored his second First-Class hundred, he stitched an unbroken 158-run stand with Mohit Avasthi (51*). Tanush Kotian also finished with the figures of 3/101, best for a Mumbai bowler in the first innings.
Earlier in March 2024, Rahane led Mumbai beat Vidarbha by 169 runs in the final at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai to win the title for the 42nd time. With this win, Mumbai ended their eight-year long wait as they got their hands for the first time since 2015-16 edition.