It was all square on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Super League final at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.
After being put into bat, Uttar Pradesh put up a decent total (292/7) on board, largely based on two superlative individual performances - a strokeful 105 from opener Tanmay Srivastava and an unbeaten 80 by Ravikant Shukla.
But six-times champions Delhi managed to neutralize the advantage of their opponents by claiming three wickets in the day's final session.
Pradeep Sangwan (3/73) and Sumit Narwal (3/66) were the most successful bowlers, who struck at regular intervals to keep Delhi in the game.
Uttar Pradesh lost Rohit Srivastava (6), Suresh Raina (16) and captain Mohammad Kaif (16) early enough and were struggling a bit at 102/3 going into lunch.
While Srivastava and Raina were both trapped in front by Narwal and Sangwan respectively, Kaif was snapped up at first slip by Aakash Chopra to give spinner Chetanya Nanda his lone success of the day.
However, Tanmay and Shukla started rebuilding the innings in the post-lunch session and put on a 101-run stand for the fourth wicket to wrest the initiative back from Delhi.
Tanmay reached his maiden hundred at this level in an emphatic manner - with a huge six of Nanda. That particular shot also brought in his 100-run partnership with Shukla.
However, he fell in the very next over, caught at third slip by Shikhar Dhawan off Sangwan to what seemed a very careless shot.
Uttar Pradesh lost no further wickets before tea and reached 215/4 at the end of the second season.
The final session of the day witnessed Piyush Chawla (20) succumb to an unnecessary display of flamboyance - caught at gully off Narwal, stumper Amir Khan (15) edging one to second slip (Chopra again) off Sangwan and Praveen Kumar (8) failing to make most of his dropped chance (Amit Bhandari) and falling to Narwal.
However, Shukla held fort at the other end. The 20-year-old, who also survived a chance when he was dropped by Delhi 'keeper Puneet Bisht off Narwal when on 57, hit eight fours in his 190-ball knock and remained unconquered.
At the close of play, he had Bhuvanesh Kumar (6 not out) for company.
Scorecard
Uttar Pradesh (1st innings):
Rohit Srivastava lbw Narwal 6
Tanmay Srivastava c Dhawan b Sangwan 105
Suresh Raina lbw Sangwan 16
Mohd Kaif c Chopra b Nanda 16
Ravikant Shukla batting 80
Piyush Chawla c Jain b Narwal 20
Amir Khan c Chopra b Sangwan 15
Praveen Kumar c Manhas b Narwal 8
Bhuvanesh Kumar batting 6
Extras: (b 1, lb 13, nb 5, wb 1) 20
Total: (for 7 wkts in 90 overs) 292
Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-60, 3-99, 4-200, 5-231, 6-274, 7-285
Bowling: Sangwan 21-5-73-3, Bhandari 17-3-60-0, Narwal 20-4-66-3, Bhatia 16-3-34-0, Nanda 15-2-37-1, Manhas 1-0-8-0.
