LUCKNOW: A substitute's hand in the team's success is seldom recorded and acknowledged. But for Ali Hamid Zaidi, who could not find a place in the playing eleven of Uttar Pradesh this season, it is going to be pleasantly different. This 23-year-old dived his way into the hearts of the followers of the UP cricket present at the K. D. Singh Babu Stadium here.

He brought off a stunning catch to send back an impetuous Laxmi Ratan Shukla and signalled the end of Bengal's valiant bid for the first innings lead in the Ranji Trophy final.

Ahead by 14 runs, Uttar Pradesh threatened to bat Bengal out of the contest by reaching 183 for two, with skipper Mohammad Kaif unbeaten at 82, at stumps on the fourth day.

Before Kaif, who hit two sixes and five boundaries, and opener Shivakant Shukla (56, 1x6, 6x4) put on 111 runs for the second wicket to add to Bengal's frustration, the visiting team had put down a great opportunity to make a match of it after conceding a slender lead.

Kaif, on nought, offered a straightforward catch at cover and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala floored it off medium pacer Ranadeb Bose. The UP captain went to rub salts into Bengal wounds by carrying on all day. With UP ahead by 197 runs and eight wickets in hand, Bengal skipper Deep Dasgupta was hoping for a recovery like in the first innings when the home team lost seven wickets in the space of 84 runs. "It is an uphill task, but we have to go for it after bowling out UP early. We have no other go," said Dasgupta.

The best first hour

Earlier, the best part of the match came in the first hour of the day. Needing 39 runs to overhaul UP's 387, the ninth-wicket Bengal pair of Shukla and Bose batted sensibly. Bose grew in confidence with every passing over and dominated the strike before edging a leg-side delivery to wicketkeeper Mohammad Amir Khan off left-arm seamer Shalabh Srivastav.

In walked the last-man Shib Sankar Paul to join Shukla with Bengal needing another 25 runs for the lead. Aware of Paul's lack of batting abilities, Shukla was expected to take charge. He hit leg-spinner Piyush Chawla for a six over long on to raise Bengal's hopes.

However, Shukla again tried to give Chawla the charge. He swept hard in order to find the gap between square leg and mid-wicket. Young Zaidi, ran in from the square-leg fence, dived full length forward to bring off a stunner. The ball found the fingers of Zaidi's right hand and the fielder was quick to bring in his other hand to complete a memorable catch.

"I think it was a great effort from Zaidi under pressure," acknowledged Kaif later and went on to add that the job was not yet over. "I still think we need to bat until lunch on Thursday and then take it from there."

The scores:

Uttar Pradesh — 1st innings: 387

Bengal — 1st innings: A. Das c Khan b Chawla 60, S. Das b Srivastav 34, A. Jhunjhunwala lbw b Chawla 22, S. S. Singh b Chawla 23, R. Gavaskar lbw b Kumar 49, M. Tiwari lbw b Kumar 43, D. Dasgupta c Khan b Zaidi 20, L. R. Shukla c (sub.) Ali Hamid Zaidi b Chawla 66, S. Lahiri b S. Shukla b Chawla 21, R. Bose c Khan b Srivastav 11, S. S. Paul (not out) 0, Extras (b-4, lb-6, nb-7, w-6) 24. Total (in 126.4 overs) 373.

Fall of wickets: 1-68, 2-102, 3-143, 4-186, 5-203, 6-252, 7-302, 8-331, 9-363

Uttar Pradesh bowling: A. W. Zaidi 26-5-65-1, P. Kumar 32-8-124-2, S. Srivastava 33-4-91-2, P. Chawla 35.4-8-83-5.

Uttar Pradesh — 2nd innings: P. Kumar c Arindam b Bose 15, S. Shukla lbw b Paul 56, M. Kaif (batting) 82, S. Raina (batting) 21, Extras (b-4, lb-1, nb-4) 9. Total (for two wickets, in 70 overs) 183.

Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-136.

Bengal bowling: S. S. Paul 22-3-57-1, R. Bose 6-2-17-1, S. Lahiri 24-2-73-0, S. Singh 16-5-25-0, M. Tiwari 2-0-6-0.

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