Domestic doyen Wasim Jaffer showed his mastery with a 53rd first-class hundred in Vidarbha's 289 for two against Rest of India on the opening day of the Irani Cup, which witnessed an out-of-sorts Ravichandran Ashwin trying his hand at bowling leg breaks.
The Ranji Trophy champions were hardly bothered by the Rest of India bowlers on a placid Jamtha track as the 40-year-old Jaffer remained unbeaten on 113 off 166 balls with 16 boundaries and a six to his credit. He was as regal in his strokeplay as he has always been, becoming the highest ever run-getter in the history of Irani Cup.
Jaffer, who was appearing in his 242nd first-class matches, has now played 12 Irani Cup games (mostly for Mumbai, a few for Rest of India and now for Vidarbha) with over 1000 runs.
Ashwin's figures of 25-1-66-1 won't tell the story about him being largely ineffective primarily due to lack of assistance from the track.
In between, Ashwin tried bowling leg-breaks, but Jaffer and Vidarbha skipper Faiz Fazal (89, 190 balls) negotiated him without much difficulty.
The successful opening pair of Fazal and Ramaswamy once again showed why they had made such a big impact in Vidarbha's Ranji triumph, adding 101 runs for the opening stand.
Fazal was more dogged in his approach, something that got him 900 runs in the Ranji season.
Once Jaffer came in, he showed why he belonged to a different league.
70 off his 113 came in boundaries and he showed time and again as to why he will forever remain one of India's finest first-class batsmen.
His sixth consecutive half-century in Irani Cup came when he cover drove Ashwin, and a thickish edge over slips off Jayant got him to his century.
In the process, he added 118 runs with Fazal for the second wicket and another 72 for the unbroken third wicket with Ganesh Sathish (29 batting).