Nagpur, Oct. 9: Zaheer Khan and Laxmipathy Balaji claimed four wickets each to bundle out Uttar Pradesh for a meagre 148 runs before the Rest of India themselves collapsed to 131/7 on an eventful opening day of the Irani Cup match here on Monday.

As many as 17 wickets perished on day one of the five-day match, as batsmen on both sides had a tough time trying to negotiate the slight seam movement that the pitch at the VCA Stadium was offering.

Batting first, a depleted Uttar Pradesh, missing Suresh Raina, Mohd Kaif, R.P. Singh and Piyush Chawla, comfortably reached 102/2 fifteen minutes before lunch.

But then, the tragedy struck.

Zaheer (4/46) and Balaji (4/29), trying to make a come back on the national team, struck regularly to reduce the Ranji champions to 115/5 at lunch.

Openers Shivkant Shukla (52) and Praveen Kumar (42) showed some early resilience but batsmen down the order failed to make much impact on a fairly seaming wicket.

The post-lunch session saw the combination of Zaheer and Balaji play havoc against some irresponsible batting display from the Ranji champions. M. Kartik chipped in with 2/23.

Rest of India made a confident start putting 64 for the opening wicket through skipper Wasim Jaffer (45) and Gautam Gambhir (20).

The exit of Gambhir, bowled by lanky paceman Praveen Kumar, signalled the collapse of the Rest of India.

Robin Uthappa (8), Venugopal Rao (0), Dinesh Kaarthick (11), paid for some rash strokes. Praveen (3/27) and pacer S. Srivastava (3/47) did the damage.

S. Badrinath (35 not out) is holding one end up with patience with his side still requiring 18 runs to overhaul UP’s first innings total.