Rest of India 237 (Smaran 68, Sunil 3-36) and 319 (Smaran 135, Sunil 3-56) beat Jammu & Kashmir 278 (Dogra 75, Choudhary 5-78) and 111 (Khajuria 36, Mukesh Kumar 6-33) by 167 runs

RoI resuming on 306 for 8, added just 13 runs to their overnight score with fast bowler Sunil Kumar picking up both wickets to fall. Mukesh Choudhary fell on the final ball of the second over of day four, going for an agricultural heave across the line, only to see his stumps in a mess. That drew curtains on a mammoth 113-run ninth-wicket stand off 139 balls that rescued RoI from the depths of 197 for 8.

Smaran was the last wicket to fall on 135 when his leg stump was knocked back by Sunil as RoI were bowled out for 319.

Iqbal, who had scored a rollicking century in the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy final, was at his unorthodox best. He got off the mark with an uppish clip through square leg. Not long after, he was shimmying down the track, backing away and taking on the bowlers. There was an lbw appeal against him off Choudhary, to which he answered with a six over fine leg and had an exchange with the bowler.

Deep was brought into the attack in the seventh over and immediately found more purchase from the surface. He was hitting speeds in the range of early to mid 140kph and had Iqbal flicking straight to midwicket, where Saransh Jain put down a fairly straightforward chance.

Iqbal, however, wasn’t willing to take a step back and struck Choudhary for three successive fours, through cover, point and over slips, following it with a fist pump in the bowler’s face. On the other hand, Khajuria had a slice of luck when he had an lbw appeal against him turned down and then edged a Deep length ball in between slip and the wicketkeeper. With Rishabh Pant indisposed and off the field, Aryan Juyal failed to move to his right in time behind the stumps.

But J&K’s luck soon ran out. Bowling from wide of the crease, Deep had Iqbal struck in front of his pads. The opener, in typical fashion, stepped right across and looked for an ungainly heave across the line. He missed and was adjudged lbw, with his DRS query having the ball clip the outer part of leg stump.

It was a steep fall for J&K thereon. Shubham Pundir left a Mukesh Kumar indipper and was struck in front, but the height of the delivery’s impact saved him. The fast bowler kept chugging away and soon had Pundir lbw with a length ball angling into the batter, with DRS intervention required to turn the decision in his favour. The very next ball, he took out J&K’s main man Paras Dogra, who missed a straight ball and saw his middle stump pegged back as the hosts slipped from 54 for 0 to 65 for 3 in 3.4 overs.

Abdul Samad and Khajuria had their moments and took J&K to lunch at 89 for 3. However, it all came crashing down for the hosts in the afternoon session. Deep, who kept pegging away in the channel outside off stump, had Khajuria caught behind first ball after lunch.

Mukesh Kumar then got into the act with his lethal outswingers. He drew Kanhaiya Wadhawan outside off with a fullish length ball and caught his outside edge through to Juyal. Deep then had Sahil Lotra caught behind. Once Choudhary had Samad edging to second slip, the end was nigh.

Mukesh Kumar wrapped up the tail in a jiffy, picking up three wickets in an over. He first flattened Abid Mushtaq’s middle pole, then had Umar Nazir caught around the extra cover region before ending the game with Sunil’s wicket, who failed to get out of the way of a short ball and periscoped it to second slip. J&K lost their last seven wickets for just 22 runs after lunch to go down in a whimper.