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Tanmay carves out a century

Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW: Tanmay Srivastava regained contact with confidence by scoring his fourth century and, in the process, played the leading role in Uttar Pradesh reaching 300 for four on the opening day of the four-day Elite Group Ranji Trophy match at the Dr. Akhilesh Das Gupta Stadium here.

Electing to bat on a pitch that offered slow bounce, U.P. gained from some wayward bowling, particularly in the first session, from Delhi’s medium pacers left-arm Pradeep Sangwan and Sumit Narwal. First-change Parvinder Awana bowled a far better line, made the batsmen play more and was rewarded with two wickets.

Tanmay snapped his frustrating string of low scores this season by smashing 109 before being bowled by Rajat Bhatia. The Delhi all-rounder tried his hand at off-spin after realising that his medium pace offerings were too friendly for the opposition.

Good shot-making

In the company of fellow left-hander Suresh Raina, Tanmay flourished and hit 14 boundaries, mostly off the backfoot.

On a two-paced pitch, Tanmay’s selection of shots and timing were commendable considering his reputation of being a compulsive stroke-maker.

He was dropped on 73 by Delhi’s skipper Aakash Chopra at second slip off Sangwan. Barring this blemish, this young opener was always in command.

Before Tanmay reached his second century against Delhi in successive appearances, Raina missed out on a big innings when he was bowled off an inside edge for 69 to Awana.

Raina revels

Raina, known for being severe on the spinners, hit 10 boundaries with the one lofted drive off Bhatia being the pick. His dismissal ended the second-wicket stand at 124 runs.

Searching for form, Mohammad Kaif put together a laborious 48, with six boundaries, before being foxed by Bhatia’s off-spin.

Once Kaif got over the tentativeness seen so prominently in the early phase of his knock, he appeared set for a big one until he misread Bhatia’s slower variety.

Watching Bhatia’s effectiveness and leg-spinner Abhishek Sharmas helplessness, Chopra must have surely missed the off-spin of Mithun Manhas who sat out of the match due to a suspected case of food poisoning.

Shikhar Dhawan injured

To add to Delhi’s woes, in-form opener Shikhar Dhawan fractured his right thumb when a ball edged by Tanmay did not carry to first slip and struck Dhawan. Dhawan has been ruled out from any cricketing action for three weeks.

The scores:

Uttar Pradesh — 1st innings: T. Srivastava b Bhatia 109, S. Shukla c Chopra b Awana 11, S. Raina b Awana 69, Mohd. Kaif b Bhatia 48, Parvinder (batting) 36, Bhuvaneshwar (batting) 5, Extras (b-6, lb-2, nb-14) 22, Total (for four wkts. in 82 overs): 300.

Fall of wickets: 1-34, 2-158, 3-244, 4-279.

Delhi bowling: Narwal 14-1-32-0, Sangwan 16-0-73-0, Awana 16-1-39-2, Bhatia 15-2-41-2, Abhishek 20-0-100-0, M. Tehlan 1-0-7-0.

Super League: At Kolkata: Saurashtra 372 for three in 84 overs (Chirag Pathak 118, S. Jogiyani 103, Jaydev Shah 59, C. Pujara 68 batting) vs. Bengal.

At Dharamsala: Tamil Nadu 293 for eight in 90 overs (Dinesh Karthik 70, R. Ashwin 107 batting) vs. Himachal Pradesh.

At Hyderabad: Orissa 203 for five in 90 overs (Rakesh Mohanty 42, Pravanjan Mullick 73 batting, Halhadar Das 49) vs. Hyderabad.

At Pune: Maharashtra 105 in 39.5 overs (R. Vinay Kumar five for 40) vs. Karnataka 125 for one in 44 overs (K.B. Pawan 74 batting, G. Satish 40 batting).

At Mohali: Gujarat 160 in 45 overs (L. Ablish six for 79, M.S. Gony four for 38) vs. Punjab 77 for two in 37 overs.

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