Eklavya makes most of chance, boosts UP’s lead

Just when UP seemed to be in crises with the scoreboard reading 121 for four, Parvinder and Dwivedi showed great application to steady the innings.

Dwivedi was thrilled to make his chance count."I was under a bit of pressure as this was his comeback match. I was just trying to play for time as some of the wickets had fallen. Parvinder gave me a lot of confidence as he remains calm and bats well in tricky situations," said Dwivedi, who made his first-class debut also at the same venue. UP team's batting coach Rizwan Shamshad said, "The team batted well today as Haryana bowlers were disciplined bowling attack. It was Eklavya's first Ranji match of the season. Parvinder showed good maturity in his batting. Though Tanmany has scored today but I expect more runs from a player like him."

"Tomorrow we intend to give Haryana a target of at least 250 or so. We want to play positive cricket and give them 60 to 65 overs as we would like to have an outright victory but a lot depends on how the wicket behaves tomorrow as well," he said.

RAJPOOT'S MAIDEN FIVE-FOR

Earlier, replying to UP's first innings total of 227, Haryana innings folded at a total of 276 runs — after taking a lead of 49 runs. Tailenders Jayant Yadav (24) and Mohit Sharma (8) could add just 5 more runs in 3.1 overs to their team's overnight total of 271 for eight in 99 overs before their wickets were taken by pacer Ankit Rajpoot.

With this Rajpoot collected six wickets giving away 68 runs which is best haul of his brief career. The 19-year-old Kanpur boy seems to hold good promise as this is his first season in Ranji Trophy and he had taken four wickets in an innings in the match against Baroda which was just his second Ranji outing.

... contd.

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