Ghaziabad, Nov 3:
Delhi clawed its way back through late strikes of Sumit Narwal but Uttar Pradesh took a vital first innings lead of 57 runs on the second day of their Group B Ranji Trophy match, here today.
Burly left-handed opener Mukul Dagar scored an impressive 116 and added 196 runs for the second wicket with Mohammed Kaif (91) as UP reached 292 for six in reply to Delhi’s modest first innings score of 235.
Old warhorse Narwal’s (3/48) late evening spell however brought smiles back in the Delhi camp as he removed Dagar, Parvinder Singh and Arish Alam to effect a mini slump.
The unimpressive Ishant Sharma finally got a wicket today when he dismissed Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
UP skipper Suresh Raina went into a shell in the post-tea season and his negative approach rubbed on other UP batsmen as they let Delhi crawl their way back in the match. Raina scratched to remain unbeaten on 19 from 70 balls.
Although, UP enjoy a first innings lead but if Delhi can manage to keep the lead to less than 100, they can still think of an outright result.
Much was expected from Ishant as this is the only match before the squad for the first two Test matches is selected but the speedster never looked like getting wickets. There were times when his run-up troubled him as he overstepped while at other times he didn’t hit the proper channel.
Ishant, who had removed Tanmay Srivastava yesterday had figures of 18-2-61-2 but more than wickets, what was more disappointing was the lack of discipline in his bowling.(PTI)
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