Hanuma Vihari creates an unique record in Irani Cup

Nagpur: Hanuma Vihari scripted history by becoming the first player to score a hat-trick of hundreds in the Irani Cup, his brilliant innings of 114 helped Rest of India to set Vidarbha a tricky 280-run target.

Besides Vihari's 180, India's Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane made 87 and Shreyas Iyer raced to a 52-ball 61, helping Rest of India to declare their second innings at 374 for three, a day after conceding a big first-innings lead.

Enjoying a good run of form, the 25-year-old created the record with a single down the ground on the fourth day, his second century of the match and third straight in Irani Cup.



The Indian allrounder had scored 183 for Rest of India during last year's Irani Cup match against Vidarbha, who recently retained the Ranji Trophy with another exemplary showing.

Meanwhile, the right-hand batsman also became the first batsman since Shikhar Dhawan in 2011 to score centuries in each innings of an Irani Cup match. Dhawan had achieved the feat against the then Ranji Trophy champions, Rajasthan.

• Back to back tons for @Hanumavihari. Getting the run registers ringing and how! 👏👏👏 #IraniCup #ROIvVID pic.twitter.com/Q9pjezMlTd

  — BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) February 15, 2019 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  Back to back tons for @Hanumavihari. Getting the run registers ringing and how! 👏👏👏 #IraniCup #ROIvVID pic.twitter.com/Q9pjezMlTd

  — BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) February 15, 2019

  ">

  Back to back tons for @Hanumavihari. Getting the run registers ringing and how! 👏👏👏 #IraniCup #ROIvVID pic.twitter.com/Q9pjezMlTd

  — BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) February 15, 2019

In the list of most Irani Cup hundreds, Vihari is now just behind Dilip Vengsarkar and Gundappa Viswanath, who have four hundred to their name in this tournament.

Vihari made his debut against England in 2018, where he scored a fifty on the debut. The right-hand batsman has played 7 Test matches for the country in which he has managed to score 167 runs. Bowling off-spin he has also taken 5 wickets in his short Test career so far.

After a not-so-memorable tour of Australia, where he could manage just 111 runs in 5 innings with a best of 42, Vihari scored a 92 against England Lions for India A in January, but the sheer dominance that he has shown in Nagpur augurs well for the 25-year-old, who is trying to become a permanent fixture of India's Test side.