Raina fails yet again, UP on verge of finishing poorly in Ranji Trophy
LUCKNOW: Call it a bad patch or the worst showing with willow, but Suresh Raina’s failure with bat for yet another time put former champions and hosts Uttar Pradesh on the verge of their worst ever finish in the Ranji Trophy this season.
Skipper Raina couldn’t open his account and got out only on the third ball of his innings as a quick one from the right-arm medium pacer Ronit More didn’t bounce much and found him in-front of the wicket on the back-foot. Before Sunday’s zero, Raina had 6 and 29 vs Railways, 0 and 5 vs Maharashtra, 10 and 16 vs Delhi and 6 and 33 vs Assam in the last match. The wicket brought the much-awaited smile on the faces of Karnataka men, who after piling up 655 in their first essay in Group A league match, managed to get five UP wickets for 243 in 69 overs on the penultimate day of their fourday tie, at the Green Park stadium in Kanpur on Sunday.
Uttar Pradesh would need 413 runs to take the first innings lead when the final day games begin on Monday, and now it looks almost impossible for a depleted Uttar Pradesh even to achieve this honour as the match seems heading for a tame draw.
There was nothing wrong when UP begun chase on Sunday afternoon as make-shift opener Umang Sharma and Shivam Chaudhary stitched together 106-run for the opening wicket. Shivam was the first to go as was bowled by K Gowtham after making 57, which came off 87 balls with the help of six fours and three sixes. Raina’s departure in the very next over remained a prize-wicket for the visitors then, before Umang Sharma edging a regulation catch to Vinay Kumar off Shreyas Gopal. His 89-run knock came off 158 balls with 13 boundaries. Before the next man Mohd Saif (26, 79, 2x4) could offer a straight catch to Nischal D off Karun Nair, Raina’s deputy Akshdeep Nath (3, 12b) too got out leg before wicket in a similar fashion off More. A sudden slump in UP’s batting almost looked eminent then, but young Rinku Singh along with keeper batsman Upendra Yadav (9) held the innings till the end of day’s play without being separated. Rinku’s unbeaten 57 came off 50 balls with the help of seven fours and a six. Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 642/7, Karnataka lost their remaining three batsmen after adding 13 runs at 655 in 186.1 overs. Imtiaz Ahmed remained the pick of UP bowling, bagging 6/110.