Jammu and Kashmir were 89 for 3 at lunch, and Mukesh Kumar’s six-for won Rest of India the Irani Cup by 167 runs
Needing only a draw in Srinagar, the Ranji champions lost their last seven wickets for 22 runs after lunch on day four as Rest of India took a record 31st title.
Oct 4, 2026
Jammu and Kashmir did not need to win in Srinagar. A draw was enough, because their 41-run first-innings lead meant the Irani Cup was theirs unless Rest of India bowled them out. At lunch on Sunday they were 89 for 3. Less than an hour later they were all out for 111.
Rest of India won by 167 runs on the fourth day at the Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium. Mukesh Kumar took 6 for 33, Akash Deep took 3 for 25, and the Ranji Trophy champions lost their last seven wickets for 22 runs.
Smaran finishes on 135
Rest of India resumed on 306 for 8 and did not add much, all out for 319. Ravichandran Smaran was last man out for 135 off 153 balls, with 16 fours and five sixes. He had been at the crease when his side slipped to 197 for 8 on Saturday, and the ninth-wicket stand with Mukesh Choudhary turned a modest lead into a big one.
Across the match Smaran made 203 runs in two innings, and he was named Player of the Match. Both times he batted, Rest of India were in trouble when he got going.
That left Jammu and Kashmir 279 to win. Nobody expected them to chase it. The job was to bat out the rest of Sunday and all of Monday on a pitch that had helped the seamers since Thursday.
Two in two before lunch
For most of the morning the plan held. Shubham Khajuria and Qamran Iqbal put on 54 for the first wicket before Akash Deep trapped Iqbal in front for 32. Then, in the 14th over, Mukesh removed Shubham Pundir and the captain, Paras Dogra, with successive deliveries. Dogra, whose 75 had done most to build the first-innings lead, lost his middle stump to one that left him late.
Khajuria was still there at lunch on 36, with Abdul Samad alongside him. A day and a half to survive, seven wickets in hand. It looked doable.
Seven for 22 after lunch
It took one ball to change that. Akash Deep had Khajuria with the first delivery after the break, and his 36 stayed the top score of the innings. The next six wickets went for 22 runs in nine overs, most of them to Mukesh, and Jammu and Kashmir were bowled out in 28.4 overs.
Mukesh’s six-for came two days after Choudhary took 5 for 78 in the first innings, so the Rest of India seam attack won this match between them. Akash Deep’s spell on the last morning will interest the national selectors too.
A birthday win for Pant
Rishabh Pant, who turned 29 on Sunday, captained Rest of India and was handed the trophy by BCCI president Mithun Manhas. His own runs in Srinagar were few, but the result is a record 31st Irani Cup title for Rest of India.
Jammu and Kashmir will feel this one. They were ahead after the first innings, they had seven wickets standing at lunch with a day and a half to bat, and they lost the lot in an hour.