Tail does the job as UP grab first-innings lead

A double blow awaited last year’s runners-up in the following Munaf Patel over,as Shivakant Shukla and Kaif were dismissed in identical fashion — caught behind by keeper Pinal Shah — in the first and last balls repectively. At 38/3,Parwinder Singh took his guard with an eye on the scoreboard,but when the Patel-Shah combination struck once again,Singh too hadn’t disturbed the scorers.

Fresh from his Team India stint,Suresh Raina scored freely to temporarily stem the rot. But just when he looked set for a big score,Raina holed out at mid-wicket for 30,to leave UP reeling at 80/5. The middle-order spent quality time in the middle,but were unable to keep the scoreboard ticking.

Just as the crowd at the Mohan Meakins ground had had enough,Piyush Chawla set the stage alive. Top scoring with 65,Chawla pulled his side back into contention with an array of brisk strokes. Cover driving Yusuf Pathan to the boundary,he made his intentions clear from the very first ball. Chawla was especially severe on Yusuf,smacking him into the adjacent car-park in consecutive overs. But going for one shot too many,Yusuf got his revenge by dismantling the stumps around Chawla’s legs. Two runs later,wicketkeeper Amir Khan was bowled,with the score on 195/8.

The right-left combination of RP and Gupta steadied the ship,before they began the rescue act. While RP put a price on his wicket,Gupta found the gaps in the field. The left hander’s innings had four boundaries,the last of which saw them pocket atleast three points.

Brief scores: Baroda 234 and 60/3 (C Williams batting 21; B Kumar 3/18); UP 240 all out (P Chawla 65,P Gupta 32; M Patel 4/61)