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First game after leaving Mumbai, batting prodigy Sarfaraz Khan comes UP trumps

* Playing his maiden match for Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai lad scores maiden Ranji hundred * Says he wants to prove he is not just a T20 player

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You are a teenage prodigy with a penchant for scoring big — mammoth, actually — hundreds on Mumbai's maidans.
You have smashed every other record in schools cricket.
You count Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar among your admirers.
You often run into trouble with teammates, coaches and officials.
You are chastised for indiscipline.
You make your Ranji Trophy debut for Mumbai at 17.
You are given just three matches. But word of your talent has already spread far and wide.
You jump into the auction pool ahead of the eighth edition of the IPL. The Royal Challengers Bangalore shell out for Rs 50 lakh for you.
You sizzle on your debut, notching up a 21-ball 45.
You are the toast of Twitter. Your captain, Virat Kohli, greets you with a 'namaste' at the boundary. He also says "Wah, kya baat hai!" Chris Gayle is also floored by your display of daredevilry.
You continue to face trouble with the men who matter at the Mumbai Cricket Association.
You decide to play for Uttar Pradesh, your home state.
You are promised a fair run.
Your deliver on your Ranji debut for UP by scoring 155 runs off 164 balls against Madhya Pradesh.
You believe it's a new life.
You are at peace with yourself.


This, in short, is the story of Sarfaraz Naushad Khan.

A little over two months after he decided to look 'UP' in life, the 17-year-old made it count with a sensational century in Moradabad on Friday. Sarfaraz's knock was studded with 15 fours and four sixes, and it helped Uttar Pradesh end Day Two of the Ranji Trophy match against Madhya Pradesh on 656/5.

Batting at No. 5, Sarfaraz was involved in a 287-run partnership with Mohammad Saif (198, 287 balls, 18x4, 1x6). Opener Almad Shaukat (128, 339 balls, 19x4, 1x6) also scored a hundred as the Uttar Pradesh batsmen made mincemeat of the Madhya Pradesh attack.

An elated Sarfaraz spoke to dna after, what he described, was a satisfying knock. "Abbu (father and coach Naushad Khan) had told me to focus on three things — solid defence, leaving the ball and rotating the strike by taking ones and twos.

"Actually, I did not play a single aerial shot till I reached my century. Yet I managed a strike rate of over 80. I decided to hit a few sixes after the tea break. I hit two each off Jalaj Saxena and Amit Sharma. I am very happy with myself," said Sarfaraz.

Describing his "new life" in Uttar Pradesh, Sarfaraz said, "I love the dressing room atmosphere here. There is no such thing as senior-junior in this team. Everybody, including the coach Rizwan Shamshad Sir, encourages me to play my normal game. I am enjoying myself here."

Dad Naushad was no less happy. "I am in Mumbai, but people at the ground have told me that Sarfaraz played a very cultured innings, replete with ones and twos.

"This is exactly what I trained him for before the start of the season. I told him to change his game a little for the Ranji season. I organised a few matches at Azad Maidan and he scored a hundred in every game. Prior to the start of these practice games, I made him face the synthetic ball on a matting wicket. This session would take place early in the morning. Then he would bat in the nets. He would play a match only after these sessions," Naushad said.

Talking about creating "match-like situations" during practice, Naushad said, "I would instruct the bowler to bowl a particular kind of delivery. Together, we would plot Sarfaraz's dismissal. For instance, I asked Kamran Khan (of Rajasthan Royals fame) to bowl one outside the off-stump. Prior to that, I had instructed Sarfaraz not to play the square drive because of the risk factor. But Sarfaraz took the bait and edged the ball to slip. Then, I explained to him how we plotted his dismissal. He learnt his lesson and did not play the square drive. He employed the off-drive instead. But once he found his feet, he started playing all his favourite shots, including the square drive."

Sarfaraz had the last word. "I wanted to prove to everybody that I was more than just a Twenty20 player. I want to do well in first-class cricket. I have big dreams," he said.

Brief Scores: UP (o/n 260/2) 656/5 in 180 overs (A Shaukat 128, M Saif 198, S Khan 155, E Dwivedi 28*, P Chawla 25*; J Saxena 3/190) vs Madhya Pradesh

Andhra make slow progress on rail-curtailed day
Vizianagaram: Middle-order batsman Ricky Bhui completed his century as Andra Pradesh reached 213/4 in their first innings against Mumbai on a rain-curtailed second day of the Ranji Trophy Group B match here on Friday. On a day when only 26 overs were bowled, Andra added another 43 runs losing two wickets to their overnight score of 170/2 at Dr PVG Raju ACA Sports Complex.

SCOREBOARD
Andhra (1st innings, o/n 170/2) M Kaif batting 89, R Bhui c Iyer b Sandhu 103, A Pradeep b Sandhu 0, K Hebbar batting 8; Extras (LB4, W1) 5; Total (for 4 wkts, 106 overs) 213; Fall of wickets: 2-18 (Prasanth, 14.2 ov), 3-191 (Bhui, 91.1 ov), 4-199 (Pradeep, 93.1 ov); Bowling: D Kulkarni 20-12-23-0, S Thakur 21-10-40-1 (W1), BS Sandhu 24-11-45-3, A Nayar 11-5-23-0, V Dabholkar 23-1-61-0, A Herwadkar 6-1-12-0, S Iyer 1-0-5-0

ELSEWHERE
GROUP A:
In Guwahati:
Karnataka 187 and 77/0 in 21 overs (R Samarth 33*, M Agarwal 44*) vs Assam (o/n 21/1) 194 in 78.5 overs (P Das 55, G Sharma 30, A Verma 57, KB Arun Karthik 28; R Vinay Kumar 2/20, S Gopal 2/43, K Nair 2/11)
In Nagpur: Vidarbha (o/n 256/6) 467 in 143.4 overs (R Jangid 40, U Yadav 128*; B Mohanty 3/65, S Pradhan 3/76, J Behera 2/137) vs Odisha 79/2 in 34 overs (G Rout 25)
In Pune: Haryana (o/n 303/6) 335 in 106.1 overs (H Rana 157, J Yadav 29; S Fallah 3/78, N Dhumal 3/55) vs Maharashtra 7/0 in 3 overs
In Jaipur: Delhi (o/n 74/3) 138 in 47 overs (S Narwal 25; D Chahar 5/60, A Choudhary 3/26) & 176/1 in 53 overs (U Chand 84, G Gambhir 77*) vs Rajasthan 240 in 75.4 overs (P Sharma 42, A Menaria 38, Puneet Yadav 46, D Yagnik 40, D Chahar 50; S Narwal 2/47, P Awana 2/24, M Sharma 3/59)

GROUP B:
In Mohali:
Punjab (o/n 235/2) 604/5 dec in 171.1 overs (U Kaul 112, M Singh 109, G Singh 201*, G Khera 102*) vs Railways 14/0 in 6 overs
In Chennai: Tamil Nadu 125 & 155 in 59.4 overs (B Aparajith 39, B Indrajith 35; S Singh 2/56, B Bhatt 6/58) vs Baroda (o/n 33/1) 159 in 49.2 overs (K Devdhar 40, Y Pathan 41; R Shah 4/38, D Chandrasekar 4/50) & 4/0 in 2 overs

GROUP C:
In Porvorim:
Hyderabad (o/n 246/5) 325/9 decl in 101.1 overs (B Anirudh 28, M Hassan 38; RR Singh 3/74, S Jakati 2/29) vs Goa 47/1 in 15 overs
In Srinagar: J&K (o/n 247/7) 330 in 106.5 overs (B Singh 82, W Raza 73; M Nidheesh 2/62, C Farzeen 2.58, R Gomez 2/33, K Monish 3/63) vs Kerala 158/2 in 68 overs (V Jagadeesh 69, P Prem 67*)
In Rajkot: Saurashtra (o/n 270/6) 307 in 106 overs (S Jackson 97; T Saha 4/72, A Dey 4/118) vs Tripura 103 in 59.1 overs (R Jadeja 6/27, K Makvana 3/32) & 11/3 (R Jadeja 2/4)
In Delhi: Jharkhand 45 & 192 in 74 overs (V Singh 51, S Tiwary 56, J Singh 30; D Pathania 7/64) vs Services (o/n 131/9) 161 in 51 overs (A Yadav 2/38, R Shukla 3/61, J Singh 2/24, S Nadeem 2/31) & 5/0

STAR WATCH
Gurkeerat Singh Mann (201 not out, 207b, 25x4, 5x6), Punjab vs Railways
Yuvraj Singh (23 in 53b, 5x4), Punjab vs Railways
Umesh Yadav (128* in 119b, 7x4, 7x6), Vidarbha vs Odisha
R Vinay Kumar (2/20 in 16.5 overs), Karnataka vs Assam
Karun Nair (2/11 in 5 overs), Karnataka vs Assam
Gautam Gambhir (77 batting, 146b, 8x4), Delhi vs Rajasthan
Ravindra Jadeja (6/27 in 27.1 overs & 2/4 in 4 overs), Saurashtra vs Tripura

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