Irani Cup: Hanuma Vihari scores a fighting hundred for Rest of India vs Vidarbha

A calm and composed century for @Hanumavihari against Vidarbha. Rest of India are now 283/7 on Day 1 of the #IraniCup #ROIvsVID

Follow the game here —> https://t.co/nzIFXjuHhN pic.twitter.com/RI3Bghn7fs

— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) 12 February 2019

Vihari came in to bat at a tricky period when ROI lost Anmolpreet Singh early on for 15. Along with national teammate Mayank Agarwal (95 off 134 balls), Vihari stitched a 125-run partnership to help ROI take the ascendancy in the first session of play. Vihari exquisite batting was in full view as he brought up his fifty with a six over the bowler’s head and then whipped a boundary the mid-wicket to get to his fifty.

Vihari, who made his first-class debut at 17 for Hyderabad, showed patience at the crease and fought his way to the three-figure mark. Batting on 96, Vihari danced down the track and drove Aditya Sarwate down the ground to get to a fantastic hundred of 188 balls.

Vihari was finally dismissed for 114 when he was caught in the slips by Vidarbha captain Faiz Fazal off Sarwate.

Last year, Vihari had made the cut into the Indian Test team after a brilliant 183 in the Irani Trophy. The 24-year old, who became the first player from Andhra in over 18 years to be selected to the Indian Test squad.

Meanwhile, Vidarbha made a terrific comeback at the end of day one after a fruitless morning session. From 170/1 ROI were wrapped up for 330. Spinners Aditya Sarwate and Akshay Wakhare did the bulk of the damage with three wickets apiece.

Teams

Vidarbha: Faiz Fazal (c), Sanjay Raghunath, Mohit Kale, Ganesh Satish, Akshay Wadkar (wk), Aditya Sarwate, Atharwa Taide, Akshay Karnewar, Akshay Wakhare, Yash Thakur, Rajneesh Gurbani

Rest of India: Ajinkya Rahane(c), Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Iyer, Anmolpreet Singh, Hanuma Vihari, Ishan Kishan (wk), K. Gowtham, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, TM Ul-Haq, Ankit Rajpoot