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UP take 1st innings lead; TN well-placed

Thanks to Ashish Winston Zaidi's defiant half century, hosts Uttar Pradesh recovered from a mid-innings collapse to secure the crucial first innings lead against Hyderabad in the Ranji trophy quarter-final being played at the Green Park, Kanpur.

At draw of stumps on Saturday, the visitors however had wiped off the lead having posted 72 for the loss of one wicket after the Uttar Pradesh posted 362 in reply to Hyderabad's first inning essay of 291.

UP faced a lot of trials and tribulations on way to gaining the crucial first innings lead, a comfortable cushion in case the match ends in a draw. The home team lost Mohammed Kaif without addition to his overnight 66, and it was left to skipper Gyanendra Pandey and then Ashish Zaidi, who hammered only his second half-century of career, to see UP overhaul Hyderabad's first innings total of 291.

A run-out and a couple of casual strokes saw the home team being bowled out for 362, 10 minutes before the tea break. That left Hyderabad with 31 overs to cover the deficit and that is exactly what they did, losing Daniel Manohar in the process.

At the wicket were Nand Kishore on 35 and Venkata Sai Laxman on 20 in the total of 72. Laxman survived a couple of edges which went between the wicket-keeper and the first slip.

Earlier, resuming their innings from the overnight 206 for three, received a jolt in the very third over of the day with NP Singh scalping Mohd Kaif, with the latter failing to add to his overnight score of 66.

Saurabh Shukla and skipper Gyanendra Pandey (47: 7x4) followed soon enough and the hosts were suddenly in trouble, six down for 268.

There was further trouble for Uttar Pradesh on resumption after lunch with Pradeep Yadav and Musi Raza falling in quick succession. However Zaidi stopped the rot, defying the Hyderabad bowlers for 145 minutes in the company of the tailenders as he scored 52 invaluable runs which was laced with six hits to the fence. Zaidi was the ninth batsmen out at 359 and the innings closed at 362.

Old warhorse Kanwaljit Singh was once again the pick of the Hyderabad bowler with six for 97.

Scoreboard:

Hyderabad (1st innings) 291

Uttar Pradesh (1st innings): J Yadav lbw b Kanwaljeet 61
M Saif lbw b Pratap 18
M Kaif b NP Singh 66
R Shamshad b Kanwaljeet 27
G Pandey b Kanwaljeet 47
S Shukla c Shaikh b Pratap 16
P Yadav c Manohar b Kanwaljeet 20
A Zaidi c Raju b Kanwaljeet 52
M Raza run out 4
R Mishra c and b Kanwaljeet 19
S Srivastava not out 2.
Extras (b8, lb9, nb 13) 30.
Total (135.2 overs) 362.
Fall of wickets: 1-69, 2-119, 3-171, 4-213, 5-248, 6-268, 7-314, 8-330, 9-357.
Bowling: NP Singh 18-2-86-1, P Satwalkar 20-4-65-3, D Manohar 4-1-13-0, V Pratap 21-10-34-2, Kanwaljeet 48.2-16-97-6, Raju 24-9-50-0.

Hyderabad (2nd innings): Nand Kishore (batting) 35
D Manohar c Raza b Mishra 14
V Laxman batting 20.
Extras (lb3) 3.
Total (for one wicket) 72.
Fall of wicket: 1-29.
Bowling: Zaidi 8-3-12-0, S Srivastava 7-3-15-0, R Mishra 6-1-20- 1, G Pandey 5-3-3-0, Raza 4-0-14-0, M Kaif 1-0-5-0.

Hosts Tamil Nadu have virtually booked their semi-final berth. They took a commanding 203-run first innings lead against Punjab on day three of the Ranji trophy quarter-final at the MA Chidambaram stadium on Saturday.

They then had the visitors on the mat by the draw of stumps. Punjab were 127 for 2 thanks to a 126-run stand for the opening wicket between Vikram Rathore (37 batting) and Riteender Sigh Sodhi (89). The visitors are still 76 runs behind on first innings.

Earlier, resuming their first innings at the overnight score of 346 for 5, Tamil Nadu were all out for 461, an hour after lunch losing overnight centurion -- left hander S Sriram in the 11th over of the day for 165 (509m, 21x4).

The young offspinner Harbhajan Singh, taking three wickets in the space of 25 balls for just eight runs, caused the Tamil Nadu collapse. Harbhajan returned figures of 5 for 106, his first five wicket haul this season.

Scoreboard

Punjab (1st innings ) 258

Tamil Nadu (1st innings) S Sriram c D. Mongia b Harbhajan 165
S Ramesh c H Jugnu b R P Singh 18
H Badani c Vikram Rathore b Sarandeep Singh 70
J R Madanagopla c Rathore b Yuvraj Singh 35
S Sharath c Rathour b Harbhajan Singh 33 Ashish Kapoor (run out) 5
T Kumaran c S Sharma b Harbhajan Singh 23
Rajat Bhatia c Rathore b Harbhajan Singh 24
S Mahesh b Harbhajan Singh 0
Reuben Paul b Sarandeep Singh 32
D J Gokulakrishnan (not out) 21
Extras ( b 11, lb 3, w 1, nb 20) 35
Total (all out in 585 mnts 128.1 overs) 546
Fall of wkts: 1-47, 2-197, 3-251, 4-330, 5-338, 6-368, 7-387, 8-387,9-414, 10-461.
Bowling: Sandeep Sharma 24.1-1-93-1, R P Singh 23-1-81-1, Harbhajan Singh 37.4 9-106-5, R S Sodhi 16-1-80-0, Sarandeep Singh 21.2-5-58-1, Yuvraj Singh 4-0-24-0, Dinesh Mongia 2-0-5-0.

Punjab (2nd innings)
Vikram Rathore batting 37
Riteender Singh c Reuben Paul b S Mahesh 89
Harminder Jugnu run out 0
Pankaj Dharmani batting 0.
Extras ( 1 nb) 1
Total (for 2 wkts) 127
Fall of wkts: 1-126, 2-126.
Bowling: T Kumaran 9-1-36-0, S Mahesh 7-0-19-1, D J Gokulakrishnan 6-2-13-0, Aashish Kapoor 10-3-32-0, Rajat Bhatia 4-014-0, S Sriram 5.2-0-13-0.