Madhav, Aryan mount a stirring fightback for Uttar Pradesh

Double engine: Madhav and Aryan led Uttar Pradesh’s fightback against Karnataka. | Photo: SANDEEP SAXENA

Fortunes fluctuated as Karnataka went from ceding its advantage to clawing back on the third day of its Ranji Trophy contest against Uttar Pradesh here at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium.

Centurions Madhav Kaushik and Aryan Juyal were involved in a mammoth 246-run stand for the second wicket, blunting Karnataka’s attack and erased the 186-run deficit.

Spinners Mohsin Khan and Shreyas Gopal then picked three wickets in the space of 19 runs to give Karnataka a foothold, before Sameer Rizvi and Aaditya Sharma set about shutting the door on the visitors.

But just as the light was fading, Rizvi gifted his wicket, pulling Mohsin’s long hop to the deep-midwicket fielder to raise Karnataka’s hopes.

Earlier, Karnataka’s pacers were ineffective, allowing Kaushik and Juyal to come into their own. V. Koushik didn’t attack the stumps enough, Vidyadhar Patil pitched it too short, and debutant Yashovardhan Parantap leaked runs with his half-volleys.

Kaushik drove and cut when the ball was not in the line of the stumps, while Juyal found his bearings with two delectable straight drives that found the boundary off Parantap’s bowling.

Kaushik brought out an aerial cut behind point to reach his ton, off 186 balls. Juyal took 230 deliveries to reach the three-figure mark, smashing Shreyas and Mohsin for a six each in the process.

But soon after his skipper notched up his ton, Kaushik lost patience as he gave Mohsin the charge only to miscue a slog at extra-cover.

Shreyas’ day-long attempt to bowl from around the wicket to the right-handers to make use of the rough outside leg-stump reaped dividends when the left-handed Rituraj Sharma got an inside edge to the short-leg fielder.

The leg-spinner’s ploy got another nod of approval when Juyal gloved a sweep to the slip fielder and walked away dejected.

The scores:

Uttar Pradesh – 1st innings: 89.

Karnataka – 1st innings: 275.

Uttar Pradesh – 2nd innings: Abhishek Goswami lbw b Vidyadhar 3, Madhav Kaushik c Pandey b Mohsin 134, Aryan Juyal c Jose b Shreyas 109, Rituraj Sharma c Manohar b Shreyas 0, Sameer Rizvi c Smaran b Mohsin 30, Aaditya Sharma (batting) 24, Kritagya Singh (batting) 5; Extras (b-8, lb-2, w-5, nb-5): 20; Total (for five wkts. in 110 overs): 325.

Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-254, 3-255, 4-273, 5-320.

Karnataka bowling: Koushik 23-6-36-0, Vidyadhar 23-3-87-1, Parantap 9-0-39-0, Mohsin 28-4-70-2, Shreyas 27-0-83-2.