The Hindu : Sport : Tanmay and Ravikant propel Uttar Pradesh

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Thursday, Jan 17, 2008
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Tanmay and Ravikant propel Uttar Pradesh

Nandakumar Marar

Sangwan and Narwal bowl well for Delhi

— Photo: Vivek Bendre

TIMELY KNOCK: Tanmay Srivastava acknowledges the crowd’s cheers after reaching his century.

MUMBAI: Tanmay Srivastava, accustomed to leading India under-19 teams on tours to Sri Lanka and England last year, rebuilt Uttar Pradesh’s first innings after the dismissals of Suresh Raina and Mohd Kaif.

The tall youngster, rushed back from India’s current tour to South Africa in time for the Ranji Trophy 2007-08 Super League final, mixed stylish front foot play with cautious shot selection and defied the Delhi seam attack for a 105 off 174 balls.

U.P. reached 292 for seven in 90 overs on the opening day on Wednesday.

Srivastava’s acumen in picking up the bowlers’ line and time to play shots stood out in the face of a spirited effort by the Delhi bowlers.

Gautam Gambhir won the toss for Delhi in the five-day contest and his plans to snare the U.P. batsmen appeared to be falling in place with Sumit Narwal and Pradeep Sangwan getting positive leg before decisions against opener Rohit Srivastava and Raina respectively.

Big blow

Spinner Chetanya Nanda, pressed into the attack just before lunch, seeing the U.P. skipper Kaif overcome early jitters against the medium-pacers, struck a huge blow by sending back the captain.

Tanmay calmed the dressing room nerves with a composed, almost carefree approach at the crease.

“Indian wickets have less bounce, compared to the South African wickets. I batted on and stuck to my normal game, aware that runs will come if I survived the first session when movement off the wicket helps bowlers,” Tanmay said.

Elegant shots

A stroke-filled half-century in 93 balls (nine fours), marked by elegant cover drives, doused the Delhi bowlers’ fire.

Ravikant Shukla (80 batting) proved to an able partner, boosting the left-handed Tanmay’s confidence so much that he bounded from 99 to 105 with a pulled six to mid-wicket off slow bowler Nanda.

Sangwan picked up three wickets and commanded respect for control over swing. He is the second India Under-19 player on the SA tour, permitted by the BCCI to assist his state in the Ranji final.

Narwal chipped in with three for 66 off 20 overs for Delhi.

The scores:

Uttar Pradesh — 1st innings: R. Srivastava lbw b S. Narwal 6, T. Srivastava c Dhawan b Sangwan 105, S. Raina lbw b Sangwan 16, M. Kaif c Chopra b Nanda 16, R. Shukla (batting) 80, P. Chawla c Jain b Narwal 20, A. Khan c Chopra b Sangwan 15, P. Kumar c Manhas b Narwal 8, B. Kumar (batting) 6, Extras (b-1, lb-13, nb-5, w-1) 20; Total (for seven wkts. in 90 overs) 292.

Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-60, 3-99, 4-200, 5-231, 6-274, 7-285.

Delhi bowling: Sangwan 21-5-73-3, Bhandari 17-3-60-0, Narwal 20-4-66-3, Bhatia 16-3-34-0, Nanda 15-2-37-1, Manhas 1-0-8-0.

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