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Irani Cup: Wanted to prove that I can score century for Mumbai, says Jay Bista

Bista used the time that he was dropped from the Ranji squad to score runs in the CK Nayudu Trophy Under-23 knockouts including a century against Baroda in the quarterfinals and a double century against Madhya Pradesh in the final last week that his side won.

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Jay Bista
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After surviving the initial overs from medium-pacers Jaydev Unadkat, Krishna Das and Ankit Rajpoot, Mumbai's 20-year-old Jay Bista settled down to play a free-flowing 104 on the first day of the Irani Cup tie at the Brabourne Stadium on Sunday.

On a pitch where Rest of India operated with four medium-pacers and the lone spinner in Jayant Yadav, Bista made the most of the batting-friendly conditions to notch up his maiden first-class century in only his fifth appearance.

"It is a very satisfying knock. I wished that if I got a chance to play here, I wanted to prove everyone that I can score a century for Mumbai. It's good that I got a century but at the same time, am disappointed that I could not make it big. It was a good wicket. After all, a hundred is a hundred," the right-handed opening batsman said.

Bista used the time that he was dropped from the Ranji squad to score runs in the CK Nayudu Trophy Under-23 knockouts including a century against Baroda in the quarterfinals and a double century against Madhya Pradesh in the final last week that his side won.

"While I was missing the Ranji Trophy semifinals and final, I was focussed on winning the title for Mumbai U-23," Bista said.

Asked why runs were not coming during his first four Ranji matches before being dropped, Bista said: "I was under a lot of pressure in my Ranji debut. I got confidence when I scored half-century in the second game (74 vs Madhya Pradesh). I wanted to cement my place in the side and in the process played some bad shots," Bista explained.

Correcting himself from the previous mistakes, Bista said: "I now take time to get set before playing according to my instincts. If I am well set, I can play really well."

He said that scoring runs in the U-23 knockouts helped him grow in confidence. "The wickets were challenging against Baroda and Madhya Pradesh. Scoring there has made me believe that I can do well in challenging conditions and on tricky pitches," he said.

Meanwhile, Rest of India coach Aashish Kapoor clarified that the Brabourne Stadium pitch always assisted seam bowling while defending the decision to play with four seamers and the lone spinner, Jayant Yadav, ahead of season's highest wicket-taker Shahbaz Nadeem of Jharkhand.

"You can play only one spinner here and the choice of Yadav's is selectors'. There is no point in playing two spinners when you are faced with the situation of bowling first up. Also, it was the seamers who picked up wickets in the Board President's XI vs South Africa game in October here," Kapoor said.

Kapoor, the former India off-spinner, hoped that his seamers cut short the Mumbai innings early on Monday morning.

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