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DEAR REDIFF

Bahutule spins Bombay to Irani Trophy win

If Anil Kumble can do it, so too can Sairaj Bahutule. That seemed to be the message from the Wankhede Stadium, where Bombay's 24-year-old leggie stole a march over his famed counterpart from Karnataka with a career-best haul of 8-71 on a spin friendly track to bowl the Rest of India side out for 233.

In the end, it all boiled down to the battle of the leg spinners as, on day four, Kumble produced a dream spell of 7 for 33 to bundle Bombay out for 93 and set up a possible win for the Rest, only for Bahutule to go one better with an eight wicket haul that wrecked that dream and confirmed Bombay as the champion outfit in the country.

The day began with the Rest, on 7 for no loss, needing 281 to win off 90 overs. Navjot Singh Sidhu ruined his chances for a recall to the national side when, right at the outset, he edged Paras Mhambrey to fine leg to depart for two.

From then on, it was Bahutule's day. Coming on at the Garware Pavilion End (where Kumble had operated from in Bombay's second innings), the leggie ripped the heart out of the Rest of India's batting lineup, taking out Gagan Khoda (13), Sridharan Sharath (8), Pankaj Dharmani (1) and VVS Laxman (whose obdurate resistance ended just before lunch, for a personal score of 35) to have the Rest on 85 for 5 at lunch, the game looking effectively won and lost at that stage.

But Aashish Kapoor (50 with seven fours and one six) and Anul Kumble (46 not out with i four and one six) revived the Rest and inspired a fightback, tthe last four wickets adding 108 runs.

The game was in fact tantalisingly poised at the beginning of the mandatory overs, with the Rest needing 64 runs, with three wickets in hand. Bahutule at this stage returned for his second spell and raced through the tail, taking out Dodda Ganesh (17), Venkatapathy Raju (17 and Robin Singh Junior (0) to end the resistance and give Bombay its 14th win in 21 attempts on the Irani Trophy.

While Rest of India skipper Anil Kumble lamented the lack of application shown by his top order batsmen, Bombay captain Sanjay Manjrekar said that for his team, "everything went according to plan."

"The opposition had a formidable batting lineup, it was up to our spinners to win the game for us and Bahutule responded with a great effort," Manjrekar said.

Bahutule's haul of eight wickets is the third best in the tournament, following Ravi Shastri's 9-109 in 1981-'82 and Balu Gupte's 8-48 in 1963-'64. Interestingly, Bahutule took over the third spot from no less than Anil Kumble who had, just the previous day, claimed it with his 7/33 haul.

"Sai really bowled magnificiently," said Anil Kumble after the game.