By IANS,
Vadodara : Rest of India (ROI) lifted the Irani Trophy beating Ranji Trophy champions Delhi by 187 runs on the fourth day here Saturday.
Chasing 378 to win, Delhi were bowled out for 190 as Gautam Gambhir’s valiant 91 went in vain. ROI, who made 252 runs in the first innings, managed to reach 302 in the second to take a 377-run lead. The Ranji Trophy champions were skittled out for 177 in the first innings.
Resuming at the overnight score of 113 for three, Delhi batsmen failed to show patience to adjust to the slow nature of the track and the innings folded in little more than two hours.
After the third day’s play, the writing was on the wall for the Ranji Trophy winners as only a miracle could have saved them. But it was not to be.
An injured Aakash Chopra came out to bat with overnight batsman Gambhir raising hopes of a fight-back in the Delhi camp. The hope was short-lived as Chopra didn’t trouble the scorers and departed in the second over after Zaheer Khan rattled his stumps.
Then on it was just a matter of time for the Delhi team, as ROI’s spin-twin Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh tormented the tail. Harbhajan returned with figures of 4/31 while skipper Kumble was a miser with his 3/19.
With wickets tumbling at other end, Gambhir fought a lonely battle aggressively. His 173-ball innings, which was studded with 12 boundaries, came to an end when he edged Kumble to wicketkeeper Dhoni.