Match referee B Raghunath tosses the coin as rival captains Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar, along with DD Sports presenter and former international Atul Wassan, look on.

It was a rare occasion in the history of domestic cricket that Ganguly faced off with Tendulkar in a five-day contest.

Rest of India has won the Irani Trophy 16 times, followed by Bombay/Mumbai (15).

In the last edition of the Irani Trophy, Rest of India led by Yuvraj Singh lost to then Ranji Trophy champions Railways by 5 wickets.

Also see: Tendulkar thrills the tots

Images: Deepak Salvi