With three outright wins, UP make it to quarterfinals
LUCKNOW : Two-time champions Uttar Pradesh continued their winning streak in the Under-25 Col CK Nayudu Trophy, completing a hat-trick of outrights wins in the Elite Group F, crushing Kerala by 164 in their last league match to set up a quarterfinal clash with Vidarbha at Vadodara, starting Tuesday.
Pacers Kunal Yadav set up Uttar Pradesh’s big win against Kerala with his maiden fivewicket haul of the season on Friday, bagging 5/72, whereas allrounder Prince Yadav (2/96) and Sameer Choudhary (2/43) shared four wickets between them and Karan Chaudhary finished with 1/41.
After exploiting the 22-yard strip at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bengaluru by their batters, UP bowlers too lived up to the expectations, making Kerala batters lives hell before getting them out for 347 in 68 over on the final day of the fourday match.
Certainly, it was a great win for the side, which made many changes in all three matches. UP started with a thrilling fourrun win against Himachal Pradesh before routing lowly Goal by 10 wickets, and then came this huge win against Kerala as UP topped the pool with 19 points, thus qualified to play in the quarterfinals.
Expecting such a turnaround in the match almost looked difficult especially after UP could make 208 runs in the first innings on the first day of the match, but bowlers especially Kunal Yadav, Prince Yadav, Karan Chaudhary and Sahab Yuvraj Singh excelled with red cherry and skittled out Kerala for 143, helping the side take 65-run first innings lead.
However, UP’s second innings saw the emergence of batters in style and along with opener Aanjaneya Suryavanshi, who scored his second century of the season, fellow opener Siddharth Yadav, Sameer Rizvi, and keeper-batter Pranjal Saini came up with sparkling half centuries to help UP score 446, setting up an impossible winning target of 512 for Kerala in their second innings and that too on the last day of the match.
On Friday, though there were some fine performances from batters like opener Anand Krishnan, Ashwin Anand, Salman Nizar and skipper Vathsal, who all scored half centuries, they couldn’t stop Uttar Pradesh bowlers from scripting a facile win.
Krishnan was caught by Rizvi off Prince after scoring 120-ball 98, which contained eight boundaries and three sixes, whereas Vathsal made 55 in 68 balls with the help of four boundaries and a six before edging a regulation catch to Saini off Kunal.
Krishnan and Vathsal added 121-run for the third-wicket and then Salman Nizar (62, 73b, 3x4, 3x6) and Ashwin Anand (75, 67b, 6x4, 3x6) stitched together 120-run for the fifth-wicket, but they failed to stop the inevitable.
Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 433/9 in their second innings, Uttar Pradesh added 13 more runs to the overnight score to finish at 446 in 122.5 overs. Saini was the last man to get out as he scored 70 in 160 balls with the help of nine fours before being caught by Akhil Scaria off Fanoos, who completed his five-wicket haul in the match with 5/109. Vishweshwar Suresh and Vishnu Kumar finished with two wickets each for Kerala, whereas Scaria took one wicket.
“It’s a team victory as everybody played his part responsibly. We are a balanced side and confident to continue our winning spree in the knockout also,” team’s chief coach Obaid Kamal said on Friday.
“Even after not scoring a big total in the first innings, our bowlers looked confident to defend the total and they did it in style, and thereafter batters made all the difference in the game,” said Kamal, adding, “Today, our bowlers were superb as well as fielders as nobody missed an opportunity and ensured team’s fascinating victory.’
“The confidence is high and we will try to come back home with yet another trophy in our hands,” he added.