Aryan, Shivam hit tons, give UP a dream start
LUCKNOW: Openers Aryan Sharma and Shivam Bansal smashed sparkling centuries as hosts and former champions Uttar Pradesh got off a solid start in the Cooch Behar Trophy semifinal match against Madhya Pradesh, at the Green Park stadium in Kanpur.
The duo stitched together a record 255-run for the opening wicket to help the local outfits score 287/3 in their first innings on day one of the four-day encounter. Kritagya Kumar Singh (20) and Priyam K Garg (1) were at the crease at the draw of stumps on Friday.
It was a dream toss to win for skipper Aryan Sharma, who not only chose to bat first, but also led from the front, hammering a superb 111, which came off 241 balls with the help of eight fours.
Both Aryan and Shivam proved too tough to handle by the Madhya Pradesh bowlers, who were almost begging for the wickets throughout the day until Aryan was caught by Dev Bernale off Adarsh Singh in the 80th over. But it didn’t make any difference to Shivam, who too completed his century, hitting 151 in 249 balls with the help of 19 fours. Soon after Aryan’s departure, Shivam too lost his cool and was bowled by Mohd Saad Baggad in the 83rd over, before the next man Rajat Nirwal being trapped leg before wicket by Baggad in the 87th over. In his short bus useful unbeaten innings so far, Kritagya Singh made 20 in 37 balls with the help of three hits to the fence. For MP, Baggad had two wickets, whereas Adarsh claimed the first one. SCORESCARD Uttar Pradesh (1st innings): A Sharma c D Barnale b A Singh 111, S Bansal b MS Baggad 151, KK Singh batting 20, R Nirwal lbw MS Baggad 2, PK Garg batting 1. Extras (lb2) 2. Total (for 3 wkts; 91 overs) 287. Fall of wickets: 1-255, 2-265, 3-271. Bowling: A Singh 14-3-51-1, SK Dwivedi 16-2-50-0, R Chouhan 7-1-27-0, MS Baggad 28-2-70-2, R Srivastava 24-1-83-0, I Ali 2-0-4-0.
NAYUDU TROPHY
Mohd Saif would be leading the 17-member Uttar Pradesh in the Central Zone Col CK Nayudu Under-23 one-day league, beginning January 23 at Nagpur. Other members of the UP team include, Almas Shaukat, Himanshu Asnora, Dhruv Pratap Singh, Vinit Panwar, Sahim Hassan, Harsh Vardhan, Subham Chaubey, Rahul Singh Rawat, Trishal Trivedi, Pankaj Yadav, Madhav Kaushik, Yash Dayal, Priyanshu Anand, Mukesh Kumar, Hammad Ifraq and Zuhaib Qasim.
Uttar Pradesh would begin their campaign with match against Rajasthan on January 23, followed by match against railways on January 25, match against Madhya Pradesh on January 26, match against Chhattisgarh on January 27, before playing their last match against Vidarbha on January 29. Kanpur has been chosen as the hosts venue for the conduct of the knockout matches of the maiden event from February 4 to 13.