“Yes, the new ball did the trick,” he said, adding, “Yesterday the batsmen weren’t playing anything that was wide off the wicket. And when it was pitched in the middle, they just kept it down. It becomes difficult that way.”

On Friday morning, Delhi had certainly decided to free their arms. Chopra quickly added a couple of boundaries and Bhatia eight more to keep the runs ticking. It was Kumar’s pace - he regularly clocked in the region of 130-133 kmph - and the fact that he was able to bring the ball into the right-hander that did the batsmen in. His partner with the new ball Sudeep Tyagi added just another scalp to the one he had managed on Day Two. UP are batting again, already 202 runs ahead at the end of the third day. With two more days to go and four wickets left, another 100 runs would make for an interesting target. Kumar, however, is quick to remind that “the wicket is still good for batting.”

Delhi can be rest assured that they’ll be chasing close to 250 or more when they bat again.

Scoreboard

Uttar Pradesh (1st innings): 342

Delhi (1st innings) (overnight 196-4):

A Chopra lbw Praveen Kumar 102, R Bhatia not out139, P Bisht lbw Praveen Kumar 0, S Narwal b Praveen Kumar 5, C Nanda c Raina b Tyagi 0, P Sangwan lbw Praveen Kumar 9, A Bhandari lbw Praveen Kumar 0; Extras (lb-7, nb-4, w-2)13; Total (all out, in 98.1 overs) 290. Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-15, 3-15, 4-36, 5-232, 6-232, 7-244, 8-247, 9-270. Bowling: Praveen 32.1-8-68-8, Tyagi 24-5-63-2, Bhuvanesh 15-5-54-0, Chawla 13-2-57-0, Gupta 10-2-29-0, Shukla 2-0-7-0, Rohit Srivastava 2-0-5-0.

... contd.