Contrasting half-centuries from southpaw Tanmay Srivastava and all-rounder Praveen Kumar enabled defending champions Uttar Pradesh wrest the initiative on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Super League match against Delhi in New Delhi on Saturday.
Having restricted Delhi to 299 in their first innings, Uttar Pradesh lost their way in the second session but recovered through the left-right combination of Srivastava and Kumar to end the day at 207 for five at the Feroze Shah Kotla ground.
The duo put on an unfinished 82-run stand for the sixth wicket to lift their side. They were also benefited from sloppy fielding by the hosts.
Srivastava was 72 not out and Kumar unbeaten on 54 at stumps with the visitors needing another 93 runs to grab the first-innings lead.
Srivastava manoeuvred the strike well and also struck ten boundaries in his 166-ball knock.
Kumar, who was dropped twice, slammed five boundaries and three sixes to complete a fine all-round performance, having taken four wickets on the opening day.
Resuming at 257 for 6, Delhi's first innings lasted little more than an hour this morning.
Overnight centurion Aakash Chopra became the ninth wicket to fall for 150 which contained 15 boundaries during his 437-minute stay at the wicket.
Left-arm pacer Rudra Pratap Singh (2 for 96) and leg-spinner Piyush Chawla (2 for 64) wrapped up the tail.
Considering the nature of the easy paced nature of the wicket, the home team's total looks far from being a healthy one.
Scoreboard:
Delhi first innings:
A Chopra c Yadav b Chawla 150
S Dhawan c Shukla b Srivastava 6
M Tehlan lbw b Kumar 25
M Manhas b Kumar 7
V Kohil run out 42
R Bhatia b Kumar 32
V Dahiya lbw b Kumar 0
C Nanda lbw b Singh 0
A Nehra b Singh 19
R Sanghvi not out 0
I Sharma lbw b Chawla 0
Extras (lb-3, w-1, nb-14) 18
Total (all out, 103.5 overs) 299
Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-71, 3-79, 4-163, 5-245, 6-245, 7-258, 8-298, 9-299.
Bowling: Rudra Pratap Singh 28-5-96-2, Salabh Srivastava 18-2-59-1, Piyush Chawla 24.5-4-64-2, Praveen Kumar 29-5-62-4, Shivakant Shukla 4-1-15-0.
Uttar Pradesh first innings:
R Srivastava c sub b Nehra 39
S Shukla b Sharma 8
T Srivastava not out 72
R Shukla c Dahiya b Nehra 0
R Shamshad b Sharma 4
Jyoti Yadav lbw b Nanda 16
P Kumar not out 54
Extras (b 2, lb 2, nb 10) 14
Total (for 5 wickets; 64 overs) 207
Fall of wickets: 1-36, 2-77, 3-79, 4-92, 5-125.
Bowling: Ashish Nehra 18-1-76-2, Ishant Sharma 17-4-51-2, Chetanya Nanda 7-0-29-1, Rajat Bhatia 9-7-3-0, Rahul Sanghvi 13-1-44-0.