Rest of India ease to nine-wicket victory

Rest of India 201 (Badrinath 80*, Jaffer 45, Srivastava 5-74) and 115 for 1 (Gambhir 64*) beat Uttar Pradesh 148 (Shivakant Shukla 52, Kumar 42, Balaji 4-29, Zaheer 4-46) and 166 (Yadav 38, VRV Singh 4-40) by 9 wickets
Scorecard
How they were out

Rest of India needed just 14.3 overs on the third day to wrap up a nine-wicket victory against Uttar Pradesh in the Irani Trophy at Nagpur. With just 69 needed when play began, Gautam Gambhir, with an unbeaten 64, finished what was a mere formality with some fine strokes either side of the pitch.

Overnight on 18, Gambhir opened up in the first over with two spanking back-foot punches past point and a cover-drive en route to his 22nd first-class fifty. Two crisp drives through midwicket and a punch past mid-off followed as Gambhir and Robin Uthappa, who stepped in for the injured Wasim Jaffer, took 17 off the 16th over of the innings, from Praveen Kumar. Uthappa picked up trademark boundaries through the off side and straight back down the ground, but with just nine runs needed, slogged Kumar needlessly to mid-on. It was a blip that Gambhir overrode with ease to take ROI to their 17th Irani Trophy title.

Faced with the inevitable, UP's bowlers varied from an outside-the-off-stump line to wide of the pads, and the fielding was sloppy in comparison to their earlier efforts. Yesterday, UP's batsmen had combined to reduce the contest to a mismatch as they crumbled to 166 in the second innings, the second time they failed to reach 200. For the Ranji Trophy champions - missing Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, and Rudra Pratap Singh - the all-round performance of Praveen Kumar on day one and Shalabh Srivastava's fiery spell on the second day were the only plus points of this match.

Jaffer, the ROI captain, did not take the field owing to a bruised rib but cut a pleased figure as he lifted the trophy. The trophy aside, this match was important for two fast bowlers on a comeback, Zaheer Khan and Lakshmipathy Balaji. Both picked up six wickets in the match, while VRV Singh, who went wicketless in the first innings, claimed four in the second. After the first day, when a shocking 17 wickets fell, this match was destined to be a quick affair, and to ROI's credit they outperformed UP in every department.

Speaking after the match, Jaffer expressed his satisfaction on how his side came back despite being under the gun in the first innings. "I thought we had a chance to kill the game and win it convincingly, but credit must be given to UP's bowlers," he said. "But we bowled well again and batted decently. Zaheer, Balaji and all the bowlers bowled well, even Murali Kartik and Pragyan Ojha, who had very little opportunity. I also batted decently, and definitely the 50-run lead was important. [Subramanian] Badrinath must be complimented."

Robin Uthappa c Ravikant Shukla b Kumar 18 (105 for 1)
Slogged straight to mid-on