Meerut: A brilliant hundred by Uttar Pradesh’s skipper Mohammad Kaif took the team to 273/9 at stumps on day one of the Ranji Trophy match against Karnataka being played at Bhamashah Stadium, Meerut. Kaif scored 122 runs and struck eleven boundaries and a six in his innings, no other UP batsmen could cross the fifty run-mark other than him.
Earlier in the day, Karnataka won the toss and elected to bowl first, the opening bowlers justified their captain’s faith as both the UP openers were dismissed very early, UP struggling at 2-17 needed someone to play a big innings and their captain did exactly that. A lot was expected from Suresh Raina but he couldn’t do much and got out on 14, Kaif kept losing partners at the other end as Parvinder Singh got out without opening his account.
Some respite came for UP when Arish Alam (27) came in at number six. He along with Kaif added 61 runs for the fifth wicket and took UP past the 100 run-mark. Kaif completed his half-century at the other end, after the fall of Alam’s wicket, Piyush Chawla came in to bat and played a good hand of 23.
Innings best partnership came when Kaif and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (36) got together and scored 83 runs for the eighth wicket. They took the UP innings close to 250, Kaif soon completed a brilliant hundred and eventually got out in the penultimate over of the day.
HS Sharath with the figures of 5-60 was the pick of Karnataka bowlers.
Brief Score:
UP: 273/9 (Kaif 122, Sharath 5-60)
By Indian Sports News Network