LUCKNOW: It was the moment Uttar Pradesh had waited for over seven decades. For the first time in four Ranji Trophy final appearances, the bunch, inspired by skipper Mohammad Kaif, proved the strongest in the National championship after keeping Bengal at bay in the drawn five-day encounter at the K.D. Singh Babu Stadium here on Thursday.

For the record, U.P.'s 14-run first innings lead proved decisive. On the final day, the home team resumed its second innings at 183 for two and was bowled out for 342, including Kaif's 109, to leave Bengal a `target' of 357 in 43 overs. When it was decided to call off play by the mutual consent of the two sides, Bengal had reached 109 for five in 33 overs.

Medium pacer Praveen Kumar picked up all five wickets as the beneficiary of hara-kiri committed by the Bengal top-order in its attempt to `chase' the target.

Point of interest

In fact, the only point of interest on the final day was whether Bengal succeeded in wrapping up the U.P. innings quickly and kept the resultant target within manageable limits. Bengal did claim the last six U.P. wickets for 27 runs, but it was too late as overnight not-outs Kaif and Raina had almost taken U.P. to safety before throwing away their wickets. Thereafter, Mohammad Amir Khan played out 133 minutes for his 28 and the experienced Rizwan Shamshad spent 99 minutes in the middle to score 33 in their 65-run fifth-wicket stand and completely squashed Bengal's hopes.

As anticipated, pandemonium reigned when the match ended. Even as the U.P. players hugged each other and formed a now-fashionable `huddle' in the middle, a large section of the crowd followed the cameramen and photographers into the ground. Soon it was Kaif who took control of the situation and led the team towards the Bengal dressing room. The members of the visiting team came down to reciprocate the gesture from the home team.

The presentation ceremony of such a momentous occasion for U.P. cricket, however, was marred by the fact Bengal coach Paras Mhambrey was overlooked by the organisers. By the time the faux pas was noticed by the host, it was too late.

Team effort

Kaif, before rushing to catch a flight to New Delhi on way to join the one-day team in Pakistan, hailed the "team effort" that was instrumental in taking U.P. to a historic success. "Winning is a habit and this habit was missing in our team for many years. This is just the beginning and we have a long way to go," said Kaif who left with Suresh Raina.

U.P.'s burly coach Rajinder Singh Hans, a member of the U.P. team that lost the final to Karnataka in the 1977-78 final at Mohan Nagar, had reasons to be overjoyed. "I played all my cricket hoping to win the Ranji Trophy at least once. Today, I am proud of my boys for giving me this moment of pride."

Also present was the former U.P. and Punjab medium pacer Ubaid Kamal, holding back the tears of joy as he saw his contemporaries Ashish Winston Zaidi, Rizwan Shamshad and Gyanendra Pandey in celebratory mood. "I still feel as though I am part of this team. What I could not achieve as a player, my friends have. This is the biggest day of my life," he said emotionally, having announced his retirement from first-class cricket a little earlier.

Uttar Pradesh, runner up to Maharashtra in 1939-40 and to Karnakata in 1977-78 and 1997-98, now joins the Ranji Trophy Roll of Honour that includes Mumbai (36 times), Delhi, Karnataka (6 each), Baroda (5), Holkar (4), Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Hyderabad, Maharashtra (2 each), Haryana, Nawanagar, Punjab and Western India.

Bengal captain Deep Dasgupta was fined his entire match fee by match referee Manu Nayyar for his outbursts against the umpires in the media, while Bengal's Saurasish Lahiri and U.P.'s Rizwan Shamshad were reprimanded for showing dissent on being given out.

The scores:

Uttar Pradesh — 1st innings: 387

Bengal — 1st innings: 373

Uttar Pradesh — 2nd innings: P. Kumar c Arindam b Bose 15, S. Shukla lbw b Paul 56, M. Kaif c Mondal b Bose 109, S. Raina st. Dasgupta b Singh 52, M. A. Khan lbw b Lahiri 28, R. Shamshad lbw b Lahiri 33, P. Chawla c S. Das b Lahiri 0, J. Yadav c Dasgupta b Singh 20, G. Pandey (run out) 0, S. Srivastav (not out) 3, A. W. Zaidi c (sub.) Mondal b Singh 0, Extras (b-9, lb-8, nb-8, w-1) 26, Total (in 129.5 overs) 342.

Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-136, 3-231, 4-250, 5-315, 6-315, 7-318, 8-321, 9-342.

Bengal bowling: S. S. Paul 26-4-71-1, R. Bose 15-4-60-2, S. Lahiri 47-7-119-3, S. Singh 39.5-15-69-3, M. Tiwari 2-0-6-0.

Bengal — 2nd innings: S. Lahiri c Khan b Kumar 3, S. Das c and b Kumar 32, A. Jhunjhunwala c (sub.) Hamid b Kumar 0, R. Gavaskar c Yadav b Kumar 5, L. R. Shukla (retired hurt) 6, Manoj Tiwari c Shamshad b Kumar 1, A. Das (not out) 37, D. Dasgupta (not out) 20, Extras (nb-4, w-1) 5, Total (for five wickets in 33 overs) 109

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-4, 3-19, 4-39, 5-54.

Uttar Pradesh bowling: S. Srivastav 6-1-30-0, P. Kumar 9-0-33-5, P. Chawla 9-1-23-0, A. W. Zaidi 7-2-19-0, S. Raina 2-0-4-0.

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