Rajasthan need 618 to win against ROI

Jaipur: The Rest of India (ROI) are all set to win the Irani Cup for the sixth consecutive time in recent years after setting Rajasthan an impossible target of 618 to win at stumps on the penultimate day at Sawai Man Singh Stadium.
As a contest, the match was over once Rajasthan were all-out for 400 ensuring a huge 263 run first innings lead for ROI on a day when a few records tumbled.
Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha got a five-for and send a timely reminder to the selectors.

Without enforcing the follow-on, ROI skipper Parthiv Patel wanted his batsmen to have a go at the hapless Rajasthan attack. Shikhar Dhawan (155) and Abhinav Mukund (154) went hammer and tongs at the below par attack smashing 310 runs in only 45.1 overs and they ultimately declared at 354 for two.
Dhawan finally holed out having scored his runs off only 126 balls with the help of 22 fours and three sixes.
With this performance, Dhawan certainly has come back into national reckoning. Mukund, who was scratchy in the first essay also got much-needed confidence with a three-figure mark although it counts for little in the context of the match.
The Tamil Nadu southpaw also became the first player in the history of the tournament to score a hat-trick of centuries having reached the three-fugure mark against Mumbai both in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 season. His 154 came off 159 balls with 19 boundaries and two sixes.
The 310-run partnership was the second time that ROI has got past the 300-run mark. The last time was back in 1990 when Ravi Shastri and Praveen Amre had added 327 runs against Bengal.
Earlier in the day, it was Ojha who executed his plan to perfection dismissing Ashok Menaria. Knowing about the southpaw's penchant to go for lofted hits, Mukund was pushed back to long-on where the former India colts skipper holed out.
Menaria's dismissal took the stuffing out of Rajasthan's resistance as Ojha duly got his 13th five-wicket haul getting Deepak Chahar and Sumit Mathur's wickets.