Responding to Delhi's huge first innings total of 478, Uttar Pradesh were struggling to avoid the follow-on, ending the third day on 206 for seven in an Elite Group A Ranji Trophy match at the Green Park stadium at Kanpur on Sunday.
Resuming on their overnight score of 19 for no loss, the hosts lost wickets at regular intervals as the Delhi bowlers came up with a collective effort to rock UP, who need 123 runs more to avoid the follow-on. Their hopes now rest on former skipper Gyanendra Pandey who was batting on 60.
Off spinner Sarandeep Singh, who ended the day with two wickets, began the UP collapse dismissing opener Rohit Prakash (26).
Skipper Jyoti Yadav was next to go after adding only two runs. Rahat Ilahi (39) and Prashant Malviya (15) also could not not impress and the hosts reached 99 for four at lunch.
Rizwan Shamshad and Gyanendra Pandey then added 74 runs for the fifth wicket and both batsmen played some fine shots against their highly rated opponents. Shamshad made 45 before he was stumped by Vijay Dahiya off Rajat Bhatia.
After tea, UP lost three more wickets of Shamshad, Mohammed Saif (7) and Lalit Verma (3).
For Delhi, Sarandeep captured two wickets while Amit Bhandari, Sanjay Gill, Rahul Sanghvi, Rajat Bhatia and Gautam Gambhir claimed one wicket each.