By IANS,
Hyderabad : Mumbai cashed in on Uttar Pradesh’s fielding errors
to score 402 in the first innings on the second day of the Ranji Trophy
final here Tuesday.
At close of play, Uttar Pradesh were struggling at 91 for three with
Shivkant Shukla batting on 46 and Parvinder Singh yet to open his account
after Zaheer Khan picked up two for 11 at the Rajiv Gandhi International
Stadium in Uppal.
Resuming at overnight 297 for six, Rohit Sharma (141) carried on his lucky
innings that was characterised by the several edges and dropped chances by
butter fingered Uttar Pradesh fielders.
Uttar Pradesh finally got Sharma’s wicket in the morning after the batsman
added 28 runs to his overnight score. Sharma and Ajit Agarkar (47) added 82
runs for the seventh wicket.
After showing their generosity towards Sharma on the first day, Uttar
Pradesh fielders also showered favours on Zaheer Khan (33) and Dhawal
Kulkarni (11 not out) by dropping four catches, missed one stumping and two
run-outs.
Uttar Pradesh skipper Mohammed Kaif’s move to introduce Praveen Gupta worked
as the left-arm spinner struck twice in his second over of the day to reduce
Mumbai to 344 for eight.
But wicket-keeper Amir Khan dropped Kulkarni as UP’s frustrating day on the
field continued.
Zaheer punished the Uttar Pradesh bowlers and finally got out in the first
over after lunch.
Zaheer came out with the ball to give Mumbai a brilliant start by removing
opener Tanmay Srivastava (6) in the third over.
A brilliant direct throw from Sairaj Bahutule saw Suresh Raina return to the
pavilion without opening his account.
With the innings hanging at 2/6, Kaif (33) and Shukla tried to repair the
innings. But with just 3.4 overs to go, Zaheer bowled a superb
reverse-swinging delivery, which fooled the batsman and umpire too. There
was some deviation and sound, which was of the bat hitting the pad but the
umpire gave Kaif caught behind and it turned out to be a howler.