Pathan does hard yards on home turf

Baroda 24 for 0 trail Uttar Pradesh 269 (Tanmay Srivastava 84, Raina 72, Pawar 5-51)
Scorecard

Uttar Pradesh were bowled out for 269 on day one of their Ranji Trophy clash against Baroda with Rajesh Pawar, a left-arm spinner, hijacking the much-hyped return of Irfan Pathan and claiming five wickets on the flat Baroda wicket.

Just like Andre Agassi, whose return to tennis after a dip in form and the rankings resulted in a forgettable loss to a rank outsider, Pathan's rehabilitation began the hard way. Yet he'd only have been deceiving himself had he expected a return to form on the first day back in the domestic grind and his figures of 22-2-108-2 shouldn't be seen as bad news because Pathan has done what he came back to do: get the overs in.

The way Pathan bowled today, though, explained to an extent why he is back in India. The day started for him with one of the few balls that actually swung, though too much for the accompanying appeal to be taken seriously. Off the third ball, Praveen Kumar exposed the lack of edge in his bowling with a flick over mid-wicket, something other Uttar Pradesh batsmen would do through the day with a wide array of other strokes. His ten overs before lunch yielded a full-toss almost every over with three high ones which didn't qualify as beamers only because they weren't fast enough.

When he looked for swing, he ended up bowling looping dippers on and outside the leg-stump. When he looked for quicker balls in the good length area, he bowled too wide to bother the batsmen. The short ones sat up nicely for easy pull shots. And the 14 no-balls he bowled meant he kept grunting in frustration all day long.

As Arun Lal noted on TV, Pathan failed to find any sort of rhythm. His action lacked the usual smoothness and his run-up lacked momentum. As a result he kept hovering around the 120-kmph mark with his quicker deliveries.

He picked up two wickets, one off a bad shot from Shivakant Shukla, the UP opener. The other one, though, came with a somewhat satisfying yorker to Piyush Chawla after the latter had hit him for two humbling boundaries - a flick through mid-wicket and a square cut off the front foot.

That didn't, however, mark a turnaround for he bowled two more no-balls, tried round-the-wicket stuff, got square-cut for four by Mohammad Amir Khan, and was taken off in favour of Rakesh Patel, a right-arm medium-pace bowler, who finished off the UP innings.

The other two men under the spotlight - Mohammad Kaif and Suresh Raina - had mixed days at the office. Kaif looked solid in scoring 25 before playing back to an arm ball from Pawar and edging it to Pinal Shah, the wicketkeeper. The pitch held no terrors and he should be disappointed at letting the opportunity go.

Early on in his innings Raina struggled against Patel, who kept bringing the ball in to him. Raina, who sustained a knee injury while batting, survived till lunch playing and missing a few, tied down by Irfan Pathan senior. But after lunch he looked a different man, playing some delightful cover-drives, and hitting two mighty sixes - one over mid-wicket and the other a hit from down the wicket to Pathan senior.

But if it was disappointing for Kaif, it would be all the more frustrating for Raina who fell, after settling down, to a left-armer's special from Pawar. After being hit for two boundaries in his previous over, Pawar bowled one that drew Raina out. Beaten in the flight, Raina played for the spin, but the arm-ball only bounced. In one motion Shah collected the ball, adjusted to the bounce, and took the bails off to find Raina short. Pawar also got Tanmay with a full-length diving return catch.

Pawar would later describe this as his favourite wicket of the five he took today to reduce UP to 269 on a flat wicket. He was taken off after his first over, in which he removed Kaif, possibly to give Pathan a go at the new batsmen. And the wickets of Raina and Tanmay were bought at a heavy price, the two batsmen having settled down. Rohit Srivastava also looked solid, hitting Pawar for a six over mid-on, but in the same over failed to read a quicker one and cut it straight to Martin at slip. Pawar thought it was his discipline that earned him the five-for; he had indeed kept coming at the batsmen even after they hit him out of the ground and the attack.

UP, already facing relegation, have a long day tomorrow, as their bowlers failed to derive any help from the wicket. They will be looking at the early morning freshness to get some wickets.