Praveen Kumar swings it UP’s way

Snaps 8-68 to give his side a healthy first innings lead, but the match is still wide open

MUMBAI: Praveen Kumar completed his ‘second act’ in the art of swing bowling, taking five wickets with the second new ball to give his side a healthy lead 12 minutes before lunch as Delhi were bowled out for 290 in their first innings.

However, the Uttar Pradesh batsmen failed to apply themselves to forego some advantage and the 2005-06 champions were 206 runs ahead with just four wickets in hand going into the penultimate day of the Ranji Trophy final.

Suresh Raina’s quickfire 85 was the saving grace, but the southpaw would consider himself lucky as he was put down by Aakash Chopra at second slip when on 20.

Earlier, Raina edged the ball over the gully region for a boundary and then had his heart in his mouth when the ball fell short of Mithun Manhas at fourth slip. But once the early jitters were over, Raina played with fluency and was particularly brutal through the off-side.

However, it was Kumar who was the hero of the day. Overnight batsmen Aakash Chopra and Rajat Bhatia reached well-deserved centuries and were cruising along when the second new ball was taken.

Kumar stuck in the fifth and sixth balls. First, he trapped the well-set Chopra in front of his stumps with a ball that swung in. Wicket-keeper Puneet Bisht didn’t offer a shot and was dismissed in similar fashion.

Kumar, on Thursday, had put Delhi on the backfoot initially, returning figures of 3 for 11 in his first spell as he once again used the new ball to land telling blows.

Kumar can bowl a good inswinger into the right-hand batsman even though he delivers the ball from very close. This ability has troubled the likes of even the seasoned Chopra.

“I had a natural inswing, but after joining the Ranji team and picking up tips from (Ashish Winston) Zaidi I learnt to swing it the other way too. It’s not often that you get helpful wickets in first-class cricket so I just want to make the most of this opportunity,” Kumar said.

With the selectors scheduled to pick the ODI team for the tri-series in Australia on Sunday, the last day of the Ranji final, Kumar, who already has an ODI cap, has given them the option of a genuine swing bowler, who can give the ball a good whack lower down the order.

Rustic in nature, Kumar admitted he had no clue that his 8 for 68 was the fifth-best spell in an innings in a Ranji final.

When they are set a target, the challenge for the Delhi openers will be to see off Kumar’s new ball spell. “We had to take the new ball, otherwise Delhi would still have been batting,” Kumar said in a lighter vein.

That all his wickets in this game have been taken before the new ball looses its lacquer is something the Delhi camp would have noticed.

Scorecard
Uttar Pradesh (1st innings) 342
Delhi (1st innings; overnight 196-4): A Chopra lbw Praveen Kumar 102, G Gambhir c Raina b Praveen Kumar 0, S Dhawan b Praveen Kumar 14, M Manhas lbw Praveen Kumar 0, A Jain c Raina b Tyagi 8, R Bhatia (not out) 139, P Bisht lbw Praveen Kumar 0, S Narwal b Praveen Kumar 5, C Nanda c Raina b Tyagi 0, P Sangwan lbw Praveen Kumar 9, A Bhandari lbw Praveen Kumar 0; Extras (lb-7, nb-4, w-2) 13
Total (all out, 98.1 overs) 290
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-15, 3-15, 4-36, 5-232, 6-232, 7-244, 8-247, 9-270
Bowling: Praveen Kumar 32.1-8-68-8, Tyagi 24-5-63-2, Bhuvanesh Kumar 15-5-54-0, Chawla 13-2-57-0, Gupta 10-2-29-0, Shukla 2-0-7-0, Rohit Srivastava 2-0-5-0
Uttar Pradesh (2nd innings): RP Srivastava c Bisht b Bhatia 18, T Srivastava (run out) 1, S Raina c Bisht b Sangwan 85, Md Kaif c Bisht b Sangwan 21, Ravikant Shukla c Jain b Bhandari 0, P Chawla c Dhawan b Narwal 4, Bhuvanesh Kumar (batting) 19, Amir Khan (batting) 4; Extras (nb-2) 2
Total (6 wkts, 53 overs) 154
Fall of wkts: 1-1, 2-63, 3-123, 4-126, 5-130, 6-130
Bowling: Sangwan 15-3-41-2, Narwal 12-4-48-1, Bhandari 11-2-28-1, Bhatia 8-3-14-1, Nanda
7-1-23-0