UP sniffs outright win against Maharashtra

Kanpur, Nov 25 (UNI) Despite disappointing bowling performance of RP Singh, Uttar Pradesh were poised well to force an outright win pushing back opponent Maharashtra on largely bowlers' day on the penultimate day of the four-day Ranji Trophy Group 'B' Super League match being played here at the Green Park Stadium.

Conceding the first innings lead of 94, Maharashtra were struggling at 199 for seven in their second innings at the stumps against UP, who wound up their first innings at 315 resuming from overnight score of 290 for six. The remaining four batsmen of UP could add just 25 runs in 11.1 overs today.

Samad Fallah of Maharashtra completed his second five-wicket haul of the season on the third day, which witnessed eleven wickets falling.

Singh, who has just been dropped from the one-day national side to make way for Irfan Pathan, was out of his elements conceding 61 runs in 19 over without troubling the Maharashtra batsmen much.

Though, it was another UP bowler orthodox spinner Praveen Gupta, who gave UP a glimmer of hope of an outright win by his two quick wickets. In fact, he was responsible for removing Kedar Jadhav and Deepak Shilamkar, who had added 99 runs for the fifth-wicket and the way the two were batting, UP had almost lost their hopes of a win here.

Maharashtra with just 105 runs second innings lead would try to bat as much as they could on the final day tomorrow, where as UP will go all out for their maiden outright win of the season even with five points.

SCOREBOARD: Maharashtra (1st innings): 221 UP (1st innings): S Shukla c D Shilamkar b S Fallah 131, T Srivastava c D Waghmare b M Mangala 4, P Singh c N Pradhkar b D Waghmare 68, Mohd Kaif lbw S Fallah 20, R Shukla c R Motwani b S Fallah 0, B Kumar lbw M Mangala 31, P Chawla c R Bhosle b D Waghmare 16, R P Singh c N Pradhkar b S Fallah 15, Mohd A Khan lbw S Fallah 0, P Gupta c D Shilamkar b N Pradhkar 16, I Ahmed not out 0.

Extras (lb2, nb8, w4) 14. Total (in 132.1 overs) 315 all out.

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-149, 3-204, 4-208, 5-246, 6-274, 7-298, 8-298, 9-306, 10-315.

Bowling: S Fallah 38-10-93-5, M Mangala 35-11-69-2, H Khadiwale 6-3-14-0, E Haq (jr) 28-10-55-0, N Pradhkar 11.1-219-1, D Waghmare 14-2-63-2.

Maharashtra (Second innings): H Khadiwale c RP Singh b B Kumar 26, R Bhosale c Mohd A Khan b I Ahmed 31, A Shrikhande b B Kumar 4, K Jadhav c T Srivastava b P Gupta 65, N Pradhkar b I Ahmed 0, D Silamkar b P Gupta 56, R Motwani b P Chawla 0, D Waghmare batting 2, M Mangela batting 0.

Extras (b6, lb6, nb2) 14. Total in 76 overs) 199 for 7.

Fall of wickets: 1-42, 2-50, 3-94, 4-96, 5-195, 6-196, 7-196.

Bowling: RP Singh 19-1-61-0, B Kumar 14-3-30-2, I Ahmed 11-2-22-2, P Gupta 15-4-39-2, P Chawla 15-3-33-1, Mohd Kaif 2-0-2-0 UNI SB JAS PY RN1857