Rinku century rallies UP vs Saurashtra
LUCKNOW: Continuing his good run with the willow this season, young Rinku Singh slammed another century on Tuesday to rally former champions Uttar Pradesh to a challenging 340/7 at stumps on the opening day of their five-day Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Saurashtra here on Tuesday.
Showing no signs of pressure despite the team struggling at 54/4, left-hander Rinku (150 – 181b, 19x4) remained a tough nut to crack, especially for Saurashtra skipper and seamer Jayadev Unadkat, who looked dangerous initially with two quick wickets in the morning.
Beginning with some softhanded pushes for ones and twos initially, Rinku accelerated scoring in his typical style, hitting the ball for some eye-catching boundaries to all parts of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee International Cricket Stadium. Rinku accounted for 18 runs, including four boundaries, in Unadkat’s ninth over before striking three consecutive boundaries off leftarm spinner Dharmendra Jadeja.
With a push for single to longoff against seamer Chetan Sakariya, Rinku completed his fourth first-class century of the season, and fifth overall, on the verge of tea. He remained unstoppable, producing his season’s second best knock, before lofting an easy catch to substitute Kishan Parmar at mid-off against off-spinner Kamlesh Makwana.
Both Rinku and Priyam Garg (49, 93b, 7x4) underlined their consistency in the middle order again. They stitched a 145-run stand for the fifth wicket before Garg offered a regulation catch to stumper Snell Patel. It didn’t make much difference to Rinku, who added 83 runs for the sixth wicket with Upendra Yadav.
It wasn’t a good toss to win for hosts skipper Akshdeep Nath as Unadkat trapped Rahul S Rawat (0) in front with a fast in-swinger in his second over on a chilly winter morning, before forcing Mohammad Saif (0) to edge to Harvik Desai at second slip.
Opener Madhav Kaushik (37) played an aggressive knock while all-rounder Saurabh Kumar (26* ) and Shivam Mavi (28*) continued the fight. Brief scores: UP 340/7 in 90 overs (P Garg 49, Rinku Singh 150, J Unadkat 2/65, D Jadeja 3/111) v Saurashtra.