Unbeaten half-centuries by Ravikant Shukla and captain Jyoti Yadav helped defending champions Uttar Pradesh post a strong reply to Saurashtra on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Elite League match in Kanpur on Friday.

Ravikant Shukla was unbeaten on 89 and Yadav 61 not out, as the hosts reached 259 for four in reply to Saurashtra's first innings total of 342.

The duo added 116 runs in 135 minutes for the unbroken fifth wicket at the OEF stadium.

UP began their innings aggressively, scoring at a run-a-minute.

Praveen Kumar struck Sandeep Maniyar twice over the rope in successive overs before falling for 17.

Shivakant Shukla and debutant Tahir Abbas then added 56 runs for the second wicket.

Maniyar once again provided the breakthrough by claiming Abbas for 29.

Rizwan Shamshad then fell for 16, paving the way for the fine partnership between Ravikant Shukla and Yadav.

Earlier, Saurashtra, last year's Plate champions, added 44 runs to their overnight score of 298 for 7.

Pratik Mehta completed his half-century and remained unbeaten on 63, which was inclusive of six fours.

Scorecard

Saurashtra (1st innings):
K Vaghela c Amir Khan b S Srivastava 3
S Jogiyani c Ravikant Shukla b S Srivastava 3
S Kotak c Amir Khan b Piyush Chawla [Images] 45
C Pujara c Tahir Abbas b Piyush Chawla 36
J Shah c Shukla b Singh 124
P Mehta not out 63
R Dhurv c Ravikant Shukla b Shukla 21
K Makvana lbw b Singh 0
S Jobanputra b Singh 10
N Doshi b Srivastava 12
S Maniar lbw b Srivastava 0
Extras: (b 4, lb 8, w 1, nb 12) 25     
Total: (all out; 100.5 overs; 450 mins) 342     

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-7, 3-64, 4-194, 5-250, 6-288, 7-290, 8-316, 9-342, 10-342

Bowling: RP Singh 26 3 90 3, Srivastava 22.5 4 89 4, Kumar 18 1 50 0, Piyush Chawla 24 6 78 2, Shukla 10 2 23 1

Uttar Pradesh (1st innings):
P Kumar c Jogiyani b Maniar 17
S Shukla lbw b Jobanputra 43
Tahir Abbas b Maniar 29
R Shukla not out 89
R Shamshad c & b Dhurv 16
Jyoti Yadav not out 61
Extras: (b 1, nb 3) 4     
Total: (4 wickets; 73 overs) 259     

Fall of wickets: 1-26, 2-82, 3-91, 4-143

Bowling: Jobanputra 12-1-60-1, Maniar 14-4-58-2, Makvana 19-4-49-0, Dhurv 12-1-41-1, Doshi 8-1-32-0, Kotak 6-1-17-0, Shah 2-1-1-0.