Punjab skipper Dinesh Mongia took away the game from the clutches of Uttar Pradesh, who were sitting pretty till last evening after enforcing a follow-on over visitors in the Ranji Trophy encounter in Lucknow on Tuesday.

In the drawn match, Mongia batted magnificiently making the hosts bowling attack appear mediocre.

He hit an unbeaten 175 and alongwith the previous day's night watchman, Bipul Sharma (62), notched up 182 runs partnership for the third wicket.

Mongia completed his century in 192 minutes facing 168 balls. His knock of 175 included 18 four and three sixes.

In the morning, the match was delayed due to wet pitch conditions at the pavilion end and only four overs were bowled in pre-lunch session.

Mongia's first task was to pass out the time and land himself in a safe position. After settling down, both batsmen began firing on all cylinders.

Skipper Jyoti Yadav remained the only successful UP bowler, claiming the lone wicket of Bipul Sharma.

In the second innings, Punjab scored 293 runs for the loss of three wickets, when the match was called off after seven mandatory overs when both captains agreed for the same.

With the drawn match, UP added two points on the basis of their first innings lead over Punjab.

Scorecard

Uttar Pradesh 1st innings 433

Punjab 1st innings 238

Punjab 2nd innings (overnight 34 for 2)
Ravneet Ricky lbw Piyush Chawla [Images] 07
Munish Sharma lbw Praveen Kumar 02
Dinesh Mongia n o 175
Bipul Sharma lbw B Jyoti Yadav 62
Pankaj Dharmani n o 35
Extras (LB 1, NB 10, W 1) 12
Total (For 3 wickets in 89 overs) 293

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-31, 3-213

Bowling: A W Zaidi 11-2-29-0 Praveen Kumar 13-3-44-1 Suresh Raina 11-1-26-0 Piyush Chawla 15-7-37-1 Avinash Yadav 17-1-76-0 Jyoti Yadav 18-2-69-1 Rizwan Shamshad 05-1-11-0