Tanmay Srivastava away in South Africa with the India under-19 team, Srivastava was released to play for Uttar Pradesh, arrived in Mumbai 36 hours before the game.
MUMBAI: Tanmay Srivastava travelled nearly 2,000 kilometres to play this Ranji Trophy final. Away in South Africa with the India under-19 team, Srivastava was released to play for Uttar Pradesh, arrived in Mumbai 36 hours before the game, walked out on the first day to see off the new ball and hit a century.
Pardeep Sangwan, the left-arm pacer from Delhi, made the same trip. He too made the journey count, bringing to a premature end Suresh Raina’s innings by trapping him plumb in-front. Late in the day, he got wicketkeeper-batsman Amir Khan to edge the ball to Aakash Chopra at second slip. He bowled six spells and took three wickets.
Sangwan also accounted for his under-19 teammate Srivastava, but not before the southpaw scored a century. Srivastava rated Sangwan as the trickiest bowler to face on the day. It helped Srivastava that he had played Sangwan earlier, though only once during practice in South Africa.
While Sangwan grew up in Najafgarh, the same locality from where Virender Sehwag comes from, Srivastava was bred at the Kanpur Sports Hostel, located inside the Green Park Stadium.
On Wednesday, Srivastava got the better of Sangwan and the rest of the Delhi attack. The southpaw has been among the runs at the under-19 level, including an unbeaten 105 against South Africa at Pretoria earlier this month. His tours to England, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and now South Africa, it seems, has stood him in good stead.
Opening the innings, Srivastava was decisive, even against the new ball on an early morning wicket. The first ball he faced was flicked to the deep mid-wicket boundary.
Fellow opener Rohit Prakash Srivastava played across and was declared leg-before, while skipper Mohammad Kaif tried to cut the first delivery he faced from leg-spinner Chetanya Nanda but managed only to find the safe hands of Aakash Chopra at first slip.
Srivastava though, had all the time in the world to play his shots. In 2001, he trained under Nari
Contractor at the Cricket Club of India. His 172-ball century would have got the nod of approval from the former India opener and skipper. When he was on 99, Nanda flung the ball back in his direction trying to unsettle the youngster. Srivastava responded with a short-arm pull for six to reach three-figures.
A 101-run partnership between Srivastava and Ravikant Shukla, unbeaten on 80 at stumps, took Uttar Pradesh to 200. Srivastava hit the ball cleanly, especially through the covers. The Delhi bowlers managed to keep things in check towards the end of the day as Sumit Narwal and Sangwan took three wickets between themselves as Uttar Pradesh went from 200 for 4 to 285 for 7 as the shadows crept in.
Scorecard
Uttar Pradesh 1st innings: Rohit Prakash Srivastava lbw b Narwal 6, Tanmay Srivastava c Dhawan b Sangwan 105, Suresh Raina lbw b Sangwan 16, Mohammed Kaif c Chopra b Nanda 16, Ravikant Shukla batting 80, Piyush Chawla c Jain b Narwal 20, Amir Khan c Chopra b Sangwan 1, Praveen Kumar c Manhas b Narwal 8, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar batting 6; Extras: 20; Total 292 for 7 in 90 overs. FoW: 1-2, 2-60, 3-99, 4-200, 5-231, 6-274, 7-285.
Bowling: Pradeep Sangwan 21-5-73-3 (2nb), Amit Bhandari 17-3-60-0 (1w), Sumit Narwal 20-4-66-3, Rajt Bhatia 16-3-34-0 (1nb), Chetanya Nanda 15-2-37-1 (2nb), Mithun Manhas 1-0-8-0
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