da pinnacle： Led by their medium pacers, Uttar Pradesh regained control of a situationthey had contrived to lose with the bat by reducing Rest of India to 131for seven by stumps on day one of the Irani Trophy season opener atNagpur
da pinup bet： The Bulletin by Jamie Alter09-Oct-2006Stumps
Scorecard
How they were outLed by their medium pacers, Uttar Pradesh regained control of a situationthey had contrived to lose with the bat by reducing Rest of India to 131for seven by stumps on day one of the Irani Trophy season opener atNagpur. Praveen Kumar had gotten UP off to a promising start with the batbefore his dismissal sparked a manic collapse at the hands of LakshmipathyBalaji and Zaheer Khan, but his canny medium pace changed all that. Forthose interested in stats, it was only the second time in the IraniTrophy’s 47-year history that so many wickets (17) fell on the openingday.Wasim Jaffer and Gautam Gambhir had seemingly blunted the attack with a64-run opening stand, but Kumar nipped out three wickets to shift themomentum back UP’s way. Gambhir had begun with some confident strokeseither side of the pitch, but a shocking error in judgment saw himshoulder arms to Kumar’s medium pace, only for the ball to cut back in anddisturb the off stump. Kumar then changed to a slightly wider length, andimmediately snapped up Jaffer, who played away from his body for a tamecatch to gully. Dinesh Karthik, who was cramped for room, slashed tothe same position.There were no demons in this pitch, and no pace in UP’s attack, but theshot selection among the opposition batsmen was questionable.In between Kumar’s strikes, Shalabh Srivastava, the left-arm mediumpacer, removed Robin Uthappa and Venugopal Rao – playing shots that werejust not on – to leave ROI wilting under the pressure. These wickets madethe UP fielders sprightly, too; drives were intercepted with regularity,and Shivakant Shukla, who held three catches at gully, pulled off anacrobatic dive and fired in a good throw to run out Murali Kartik.Srivastava then returned to york Zaheer’s leg stump and leave UP with aslender 17-run lead.ROI’s folding was much like UP’s earlier in the day. On a warm and sultrymorning, Kumar showed his aggressive intent in a 73-run opening stand withShivakant with six boundaries and a thumped six. With a fifty seeminglythere for the taking – he had just smoked a fine cover drive through theoffside with consummate ease – Kumar threw it all away. Balaji landed oneon a good length, straightened it, and Kumar flashed without the slightestfoot movement to edge to the ‘keeper.His dismissal changed the tone of the innings, and the run rate. The first50 came up in just 49 deliveries, the next consumed 123. Of the remainingbatsmen, only Shivakant went on to get a decent score in the face of animpressive bowling performance from Balaji, Zaheer and Kartik.Shivakant’s dismissal to Kartik, on 52, allowed Balaji and Zaheer to runamok. Both bowlers were accurate and nippy, and constantly posed a threatto a brittle lower order. Jyoti Yadav, UP’s captain, didn’ttrouble the scorers as he departed leg before to Zaheer in the first overafter the interval. It was a dubious decision because of the height and itwasn’t the last either, as umpire Shashank Ranade soon adjudged Srivastava out in the same manner when it was clear that the ball wouldhave missed leg stump. Balaji picked up his fourth when he trappedGyanendra Pandey under the knee roll in front of middle and leg, and UPwere bowled out for a total that looked very under par given theirconfident start.Uttar Pradesh
Praveen Kumar c Karthik b Balaji 42 (73 for 1)
Tanmay Srivastava b Zaheer 1 (76 for 2)
Shiva Shukla c Badrinath b Kartik 52 (110 for 3)
Ravikant Shukla c Badrinath b Kartik 9 (115 for 4)
Rizwan Shamshad c Karthik b Balaji 0 (115 for 5)
Jyoti Yadav lbw b Zaheer 0 (115 for 6)
Amir Khan c Ojha b Balaji 6 (128 for 7)
Avinash Yadav c Karthik b Zaheer 0 (134 for 8)
Shalabh Srivastava lbw Zaheer 6 (144 for 9)
Gyanendra Pandey lbw b Balaji 18 (148 for 10)
Rest of India
Gautam Gambhir b Kumar 20 (64 for 1)
Robin Uthappa c Shivakant Shukla b Srivastava 8 (74 for 2)
Wasim Jaffer c Shivakant Shukla b Kumar 45 (74 for 3)
Venugopal Rao c Khan b Srivastava 0 (74 for 4)
Dinesh Karthik c Shivakant Shukla b Kumar 11 (92 for 5)
Murali Kartik run out (Shivakant Shukla) 5 (108 for 6)
Zaheer Khan b Srivastava 1 (116 for 7)
