Raina and Co fail again, lose to Maharashtra
LUCKNOW: For the second successive time this season, hosts and former champions Uttar Pradesh failed to live up to expectations in the Ranji Trophy as they faced yet another humiliating 31-run defeat against Maharashtra here on Friday.
Required to score 324 in their second innings to score their maiden win this season after Maharashtra declared their second innings for 2832/7, Uttar Pradesh got out for 292 in 68 overs and that too despite a century by Rinku Singh and a half-century by Akshdeep Nath.
Only a fortnight ago, at the Ekana International cricket stadium here Suresh Raina and Co lost to Railways by 21 after failing to chase a small total of 94 runs in the second innings, and Friday’s loss was almost a repeat of that as once again hosts failed to score the required run at this venue.
The worst part of UP’s defeat was yet another failure of skipper Suresh Raina with willow. The left-hand batsman, who got out on duck in the first innings, could survive for 11 balls to score just five before being caught by JP Zope off Chirag Khurana, at the red-clay pitch on Friday.
UP were four down for 105 when Akshdeep and Rinku raised hopes for some miracle, stitching together 112-run for the fifth wicket, but once Nath departed after being bowled by Khurana, it was all over as Rinku got no support from the other end. Nath made 79 in 123 balls with the help of eight hits to the fence.
Though wickets were falling like nine pins especially after the departure of Saurabh Kumar (23), Rinku stood tall with his hard-hitting style of play. He remained unbeaten on 122, which came off 136 balls with the help of 13 boundaries and two sixes. Last four UP batsmen could score just one run.
Undoubtedly, it was offie Chirag Khurana, who anchored Maharashra’s win with his second 10-wicket match haul in his first-class career. Khurana, who had 6/53 in the first innings, captured yet another six in the second innings to take his match haul to 12/184. JP Zope, Akshay Darekar and A Sanklecha shared three wickets between them.