Opener Tanmay Srivastav's refreshing century, and Ravikant Shukla's unbeaten 80, guided Uttar Pradesh to a respectable 292 for seven after Delhi seamers Pradeep Sangwan and Sumit Narwal struck at regular intervals on the first day of the five-day Ranji Trophy final at the Wankhede stadium 8in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Ravikant Shukla, 80, and Bhuvanesh Kumar, 6, were at the crease when stumps were drawn for the day.
Delhi won the toss and, as expected, chose to bowl on a firm track, with a light sprinkling of grass on it. There was some movement and good carry on offer in the initial hour.
Tanmay, who was called back from India's under-19 tour of South Africa, began with a clipped first-ball boundary off his legs, followed by a steer to third man before settling down to play a fluent innings. He took a full stride forward at every opportunity and played as close to the body as possible.
Though beaten on a few occasions like the others, he didn't push his bat away from the body. However, he attacked at every opportunity, slashing to the cover fence each time the bowlers gave width, and cut when they dragged back the length.
However, opener Rohit Srivastava and Suresh Raina failed to do that and were trapped in front to leave Uttar Pradesh at 60 for two.
Captain Mohammad Kaif left soon, edging leg spinner Chaitanya Nanda to first slip where Akash Chopra made no mistake as Uttar Pradesh further slumped to 99 for three.
Tanmay then found an able ally in Ravikant Shukla and the two slowly but surely rebuilt the Uttar Pradesh innings.
Delhi should have had Ravikant Shukla on 13, with Uttar Pradesh on 147 for three, when the batsman tried a slog sweep off Chaitanya Nanda, but a straight forward catch was put down by Sumit Narwal at midwicket.
Shukla, while not as assured as Tanmay, played his cuts and pulls whenever the opportunity presented itself and the partnership blossomed and crept past 100 when Tanmay fell.
Tanmay had just pulled Nanda for six to bring up his ton but fell a ball later, steering Sangwan to third slip. Tanmay scored 105 in a stay of 174 balls, inclusive of 13 hits to the fence and one over it, to leave Uttar Pradesh on 200 for four.
Uttar Pradesh then lost their way as Sangwan and Narwal then took wickets at regular intervals with only Shukla staying and making his 80 runs in a stay of 190 balls with eight hits to the fence when stumps were drawn.
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.
