After an ordinary showing by their batsmen, Uttar Pradesh staged a dramatic comeback with medium-pacer Amit Mishra bagging six wickets to help skittle out Madhya Pradesh for 63 runs in the second innings on Day 3 of the Ranji Trophy cricket match, here on Tuesday.
Building on their lead after bundling out the Piyush Chawla-led side for 180 in the four-day encounter at the Holkar Stadium, hosts MP hit the self-destruct button against new-ball bowlers Praveen Kumar, who picked three wickets, and Mishra to see their top four batsmen get out for ducks.
The Kumar-Mishra combination worked wonders for UP as the Devendra Bundela-led MP slumped from 4-1 to 5-10, 6-23 and were finally packed back in 32.3 overs. Harpreet Singh Bhatia stood amidst the ruins by scoring 37 runs.
Chasing 179 for a win, UP were 82 for four at stumps with Parvinder Singh 9 (not out) and night watchman Mishra (0 not out) fighting on. The visitors require another 96 runs on what promises to be an exciting final day’s play.
Earlier starting on their overnight score of 149 for six, UP lower-order could only add 31 runs to fall short of MP’s first innings score (296) by 116 runs.
Giant-killerS J&K fold inside three days
Dindigul (Tamil Nadu): After humbling big boys Mumbai in their opening encounter, Jammu and Kashmir failed to weave their magic once again as they lost to Tamil Nadu by 277 runs on the third day of the Group A Ranji Trophy match, here on Tuesday.
Chasing a mammoth 409 for a win in the four-day encounter at the NPR College Ground, the Parvez Rasool-led side were shot out for 131 as TN left-arm spinner Aushik Srinivas bagged five wickets.
J&K opener Shubham Khajuria top-scored with 60 runs as the visitors could only last 44 overs in their second innings.
The match was surely dominated by the hosts from start to finish as the Ramaswamy Prasanna-led side outplayed the J&K team in every department.
TN, who had already got the upperhand after J&K were skittled out for 132 in reply to the first-innings score of 254, improved their batting show the second time around to bag six points.
Resuming Tuesday on 199 for one, overnight centurion Abhinav Mukund finally finished on 137 and stitched a second-wicket 124-run partnership with Baba Aparajith (73).