UP make wayward Delhi pay

With the Delhi bowlers bowling short and wide for most of the opening day of their Ranji Trophy clash,the former India under-19 skipper and Uttar Pradesh opener repeatedly rocked on to the backfoot for his fourth Ranji hundred,and made the visiting attack pay for their mistakes on a pitch that had something for them.

When bad light stopped play eight overs from the scheduled close at the Akhilesh Das Gupta Stadium,UP had reached 300 for 4 with Parvinder Kumar on 36 with three boundaries and a six and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar on five.

The openers,Srivastava and Shivakant Shukla,were not put under pressure after captain Mohammad Kaif won an important toss. Sumit Narwal and Pradeep Sangwan allowed the new ball to fade away before first-change bowler Parvinder Awana got some disconcerting bounce to force Shukla to pop one to Aakash Chopra at second slip.

Joint onslaught
Suresh Raina joined Srivastava and the left-handed duo launched into the pace attack that fed both batsmen with short balls outside the off-stump.

They were only too happy to play square on a pitch that was slow,with the ball not coming on to the bat easily. Raina and Srivastava both crossed their half-centuries on the brink of lunch as UP sat comfortably on 127 for 1.

The second-wicket partnership added 124 runs in a run-a-minute feast before Raina frittered away the chance to get big runs,an inside edge rattling his stumps with his tally on 69. Srivastava kept going at the other end,leaning forward occasionally to a well-pitched up deliveries and completed a well-deserved ton as he and Kaif added 86 runs for the third wicket.

Delhi’s problems were partly self-inflicted. Their hesitation in handing left-arm spinner Vikas Mishra his debut,and the decision to go in with three quicks was compounded when Mithun Manhas,their batting mainstay and part-time off-spinner,suffered a bout of food poisoning and had to be left out at the time of the toss.

Sole spinner Abhishek Sharma didn’t help matters,conceding 100 runs off his 20 overs on a wicket which needed him to perform.

Dhawan out for season
To make matters worse,in-form batsman Shikhar Dhawan was ruled out of this match,and for the remainder of the season,with a fractured right thumb after being hit by an outside edge standing at first slip in the first session.

Stuck with the wrong bowling combination on this wicket,the attack looked content waiting for things to happen; Sangwan’s spent more time concentrating on keeping his foot within the line — he bowled nine no-balls — than focusing on the right length,while Sumit Narwal didn’t find movement either through the air or off the deck.

This forced them to ask Rajat Bhatia to switch from his usually harmless seam-up to off-breaks,a move that paid dividends with him dismissing both Srivastava,for a well-made 109 (193 balls,14×4),and Mohammad Kaif,two short of his half-century.

Brief scores: Uttar Pradesh 300 for 4 in 82 overs (Tanmay Srivastava 109,Suresh Raina 69,M Kaif 48; Parvinder Awana 2/39,Rajat Bhatia 2/41) vs Delhi.