Punjab edge ahead after see-saw day

Uttar Pradesh 205 for 8 (Umang 49, Harbhajan 3-31) trail Punjab 272 (Sidhana 85, Khera 74, Praveen 4-81, Kaul 3-60) by 67 runs
Scorecard

On a green track and in overcast conditions at Green Park in Kanpur, Punjab captain Harbhajan Singh brought his team back in the game and set them up to take a first-innings lead against Uttar Pradesh. With a result likely, a first-innings lead is not being chased for three points but to get slightly ahead of the other team and Harbhajan's twin-strikes to remove Umang Sharma (49) and Akshdeep Nath (35) snatched the momentum from UP to reduce them to 205 for 8 in comparison to Punjab's 272, before bad light curbed the second day in a row.

UP were well on course to take the lead as Umang stitched fifty partnerships with Himanshu Asnora (34) and Nath, but Asnora and Suresh Raina (0) were removed in quick succession and Harbhajan struck in each of his first two overs to begin UP's descent.

Umang was the mainstay of UP's batting as he steered them through swing and seam, wickets and appeals, and attacking field settings with an unflustered 49. Brainder Sran bowled several outswingers to both left-handed openers, Almas Shaukat and Asnora, and deceived Shaukat with a sharp inswinger to knock over his stumps in the fifth over. The left-handed seamer extracted more from the pitch compared to opening partner Deepak Bansal, and beat the batsmen a few times outside off but got only one reward in his 11 overs before lunch. The Punjab bowlers also paid the price of bowling too full in the first session. Once Umang and Asnora found their feet, runs began to flow freely. Umang drove Sran for three fours in the tenth over and Asnora did the same against Siddarth Kaul in the next over with a similar pattern - two cover drives and one down the ground.

However, the story changed as soon as the second session started. Asnora tried to hook a short ball from Bansal but instead ended top-edging to fine leg and Kaul set up Suresh Raina's first ball with three slips, a short leg and backward short leg. Raina probably expected a short ball but Kaul sent down an inswinger that went through Raina's bat-pad gap for a golden duck. Three down for 70 and Raina's wicket charged up Kaul. The ball was nearly 30 overs old, but he swung it away consistently from the right-handers with a nagging line and five slips waiting. Umang, though, saw the period through with Nath, who responded well to Umang's tactics of stealing quick singles to keep the score moving, and also found the odd boundary when loose balls were spotted.

Umang and Nath had just brought up their fifty stand when Harbhajan brought himself on for the first time. First Umang's outside edge went to first slip for an easy catch and soon Nath swept the offspinner from well outside off only to top-edge one to fine leg where Mayank Sidhana took a sharp catch diving forward. A hundred and twenty for 3 became 129 for 5.

But that was not it from UP. Wicketkeeper-batsman Eklavya Dwivedi put up a fighting innings with Piyush Chawla to stall the fall of wickets for over an hour. While Dwivedi was more circumspect out of the two, Chawla scored briskly and also started with a straight six over Harbhajan's head to show his intent. Continuing his good run with the bat, he drove and pulled with confidence and Yuvraj Singh helped him further by dropping him at first slip, on 21 off Kaul, before Chawla dispatched the medium-pacer for two fours in his next over.

Kaul, instead of ruing the drop, switched ends and made Chawla drive again to get an inside edge onto the stumps to seize the momentum back for his team. Praveen Kumar also had his stumps rattled and when bad light forced Punjab to bowl only spinners, Harbhajan had another well-set batsman, Dwivedi, caught at leg slip for 27 to seal Punjab's authority on the match with a lead of 67 runs at stumps.

Earlier, Praveen removed the overnight batsmen by taking a return catch off Gitansh Khera's leading edge and knocking Bansal's off stump with an inswinger.