In the current Ranji Trophy Series ( 2008-2009), Uttar Pradesh reached the Final because of the spirited innings by Shivakant Shukla. Shukla played the 4th longest in the history of Cricket. Shukla batted for 821 minutes, faced 529 balles & scored unbeaten 178 to take Uttar Pradesh through to the final. It is very difficult to play such a long innings without giving a chance or a half chance. Hats off to Shukla for all his concentration and Disciplined innings. Incidently when I looked at the statistics about the record longest innings,  Rajeev Nayyar, the Himachal Pradesh batsman holds the record for the longest first-class innings. Nayyar has announced his retirement very recently ( 2 weeks ago).  Nayyar batted for 1015 minutes , faced  728-balls and scored 271 against Jammu & Kashmir  in 1999-2000 for the record innings. Nayyar played only the domestic first class matches & his career spanned for 20 years.