Half centuries by Shivakant Shukla and Gyanendra Pandey put Uttar Pradesh in a comfortable position against Haryana on the second day of the Elite Group 'B' Ranji Trohpy match in Kanpur at the Green Park stadium, on Thursday.
Replying to Haryana's first innings of 277, Uttar Pradesh were 218 for the loss of three wickets when the umpires called off play due to bad light.
Experienced batsmen Rizwan (45) Shashad and Gyanendra Pandey (50) were unbeaten at close.
Earlier, Haryana could add only 27 runs to their overnight score of 250.
UP got off to a flying start, as Rohit Prakash (38) and Shivakant Shukla blasted 56 runs in 10.4 overs.
Rohit took the Haryana bowlers to task, smashing nine boundaries in his 33-ball knock.
Arish Alam (19) played cautiously to take the score to 84 for one at lunch, but a sharp in-swinger from pacer Joginder trapped him in front of the wickets just after the break.
Shivakant stood firm at the other end, completing his 50 in 95 balls, with the help of 9 boundaries. But he could add only six runs as spinner Pradeep Sahu forced him to hand over an easy return catch.
Senior players Rizwan Shamshad and Gyanendra Pandey dropped anchor and played the bowlers according to the merits of the deliveries. Gyanendra's patient half-century came off 101 balls and was studded with seven boundaries.
Scorecard
Haryana (1st innings): (overnight 250 for 8)
Chetan Sharma c Rizwan b A W Zaidi 16
Bageshwar Bisht lbw b Praveen Kumar 25
Sunny Singh c Rohit Prakash b P Gupta 23
Sidharth Verma c Mohd Amir b Praveen Kumar 48
Shafiq Khan c Gyanendra b Praveen Kumar 14
Joginder Sharma b Jyoti Yadav 67
Mahesh Rawat c Mohd Amir b Praveen Kumar 7
Sachin Rana c Mohd Amir b Shalabh Srivastava 12
Pradeep Sahu b Praveen Kumar 33
Gaurav Vashisht b A W Zaidi 7
Jitender Malik not out 0
Extras: (b-3, lb-10, nb-12) 25
Total: (all out in 100.2 overs) 277
Fall of wickets: 1-41, 2-57, 3-81, 4-110, 5-185, 6-206, 7-221, 8-250, 9-274, 10-277.
Bowling: A W Zaidi 23-9-48-2, Shalabh Srivastava 15-5-51-1, Praveen Kumar 33.2-9-93-5, Praveen Gupta 20-5-50-1, Gyanendra Pandey 4-1-8-0, Jyoti Yadav 5-0-14-1.
Uttar Pradesh (1st innings):
Rohit Prakash c Shafiq b Sunny Singh 38
Shivakant Shukla c and b Pradeep Sahu 56
Arish Alam lbw b Joginder 19
Rizwan Shamshad batting 45
Gyanendra Pandey batting 50
Extras: (b-1, lb-2, nb-6, w-1) 10
Total: (for three wickets in 73 overs) 218
Fall of wickets: 1-57, 2-86, 3-139
Bowling: Jogindr Sharma 22-7-65-1, Jitender Malik 2-0-14-0, Sachin Rana 12-4-32-0, Sunny Singh 8-2-32-1, Gaurav Vashishth 22-10-42-0, Pradeep Sahu 7-0-30-1.