UP spin their way back

The spin duo of Praveen Gupta and Piyush Chawla forced the Baroda team to dance to their tunes on the penultimate day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'B' super league match in Lucknow on Monday.

At the Akhilesh Das Stadium, the Baroda team, who were in the driver's seat till Sunday evening having the vital 125 runs first innings lead over UP, were dismissed for a total of 148 runs in their second innings, an overall lead of 273.

The morning dampness of the wickets played vital role in the Baroda innings. Chawla claimed four wickets, while Praveen Gupta scalped five.

At the draw of stumps for the third day, the hosts were in commanding position at 58 runs on the board without losing any wicket.

In the Baroda's second innings after the fall of opener Satyajeet Parab, who was lured by Chawla to come forward and brilliantly stumpped by Amir Khan. Thereafter, the wickets started tumbling at regular intervals.

At lunch, they were 89 for four. Azhar Bilakhia's passionate innings was closed by skipper Mohd Kaif. He was caught by Tanmay at forward short leg.

The heroes of the first innings -- the Pathan brothers -- disappointed their team as well as spectators on Monday.

The junior Pathan was trapped leg before by Chawla, while the elder sibling Yusuf, who came in next, hit the bowler for a boundary and spooned a catch at point to Rohit Prakash on the very next ball.

Seven of their teammates failed to touch the double figure mark and two of them failed to open their account.

The innings ended 26 minutes before tea and early tea break was taken according to rules.

Chasing the victory target of 274 runs, the hosts' openers reached 58 runs, playing 28 overs in 117 minutes. Rohit Prakash (30) and Tanmay Srivastava (28) were at the crease.